220                                   T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
                                                               ware of the  con'cision!`, with reference to the same
                                                               teachers of false doctrines, that always emphasized
                                                               the necessity of circumcision. Phil. 3  :2. And in his
                                                               letter to the Colossians he speaks of them as men that
                                                               `tbeguile the believers with enticing words". Col. 2:4.
             Beware Of False Teachers                          And concerning those that cause divisions and offences
                                                               contrary to the doctrine which the believers in Rome
                            II.                                have learned, he (writes that "they are such that serve
                                                               not the Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and
       The Word of God is very severe in its condenma-
tion of false teachers.                                        11~  their good words and fair speeohes deceive the
                                                               hearts of the simple".
       And this condemnation does not only concern their          From all these passages, and many more could be
false doctrine, but also their motives and methods.            quoted, it is evident, first of all, that the motives of
       Many Christians often are inclined to assume a false teachers are carnal. It is true that these carnal
sympathetic attitude to the preachers of false  doe-' motives that impel preachers and teachers to depart
trines, even though they do not agree  awith  their tenets.    from the truth and to teach a false doctrine, do not
We speak of having respect for  the opinions of others,        Always  appear on the surface. It may not even always
and forget that the doctrine of  the Word of God is not be clear to the false teacher himself that he is moti-
a matter of opinion. Or we take the charitable view vated by evil and carnal impulses. To us a teacher or
that a man may honestly err, and that, therefore, you preacher of the Word may appear very earnest, de-
cannot ascribe the teaching of false doctrines to evil voted to his calling and work, motivated by the love
motives. Again, we are inclined to be "broad-minded" of Christ, even i&uugh he is propagating a doctrine
and rejoice in the fact, that even though a preacher that is not according to the Word of God. We cannot
of the gospel may depart from the truth in some of judge the matives of men. But God does. "He knows
the fundamental doctrines like the total depravity of the hearts. Before Him the deepest recesses of men's
man and his incapability to do any good, and the truth         hearts are as an open book. He trieth the reins. And
of God's sovereign predestination, he still preaches           He warns us in His Word that the false teacher is a
Christ, and does much good. Wrongly understanding wolf in sheep's clothing, a man that does not serve
,and applying that passage of Scripture they refer you         the Lord Jesus, but his own belly. This means, of
to the first chapter of Paul's epistle to the Philipians,      course, not merely that the preacher of false doctrine
`and point to the fact, that Paul even rejoiced in the .does not serve the Lord in the objective sense, that is,
preaching of Christ by those that differed from him,           that his preaching of false dodrine is not service of
even though they did not preach Him purely. But the            Christ ; but also that he does not intend to serve Christ.
apostle is not referring to the contents of the preaching He  Iwants to serve his own belly. And he uses the
of these men, but only to their motives. And thus we gospel and the ministry as a means to serve his carnal
are inclined to condone the  wonk of those that depart ends. What he desires is to f?ll his stomach. He loves
from the truth of the Word of God.                             to eat and to drink and to have a good time. He loves
       But he Word of God knows nothing of such an             the world and the things that are in the world. He
attitude.                                                      seeks the honor of men, a good position, a name. He
       When the Lord warns against false prophets, he          would never suffer persecution for Christ's sake, if
describes them as hypocrites that come to you in he can possibly avoid it. He is a wolf in sheep's cloth-
sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves. ing.
Intentionally they assume the appearance of the sheep              Thus the Word of God exposes the secret motives
of Christ, but only in order that they may have the            of one that teaches false doctrines.
opportunity to devour the sheep. In his second letter
to the Corinthians `he speaks of the false teachers as             If we could trace the origin of any false doctrine
                                                               to its source in the heart of him that propagated it,
those that "gIory  in appearance, and not in heart",
II Cor. 4 :X2. In his epistle to the Galatians he attri- we would certainly find the desire to serve one's own
                                                               belly rather than the Lord Christ to be its foun-
butes the ,false  doctrine of those who would impose tain.
circumcision upon the churoh of Christ to the desire
to escape persecution, Gal. 6 :12, 13. When he warns               And Scripture wants us to know this.
the Church of Ephesus against being tossed to and fro,            `For it does not want believers to be simple little
and carried about with every wind of doctrine. the             children, that are easily `deceived by the beguiling
apostle speaks of "the sleight of men" and of "their           words and fair speeches of men, that boast in appear-
cunning  crafitiness,  whereby they lie in wait to de-         ance and not in heart.
ceive", Eph. 4:14. In the epistle to the Philinnians he            Nor is it hard to understand that this must be the
writes : ,, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, be-       q+se?  that  t&e root of false doctrines must be in the


 r  "'  -.                               T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        221
 heart of a man that would rather serve the lust, of
 the flesh than the Lord Christ.                                    De Heeren Koinen Van Achter De
     The preacher that  <would serve his own belly needs                             Schermen
 false doctrine !
      He cannot do anything with the truth to realize his          Ik ontving het volgende "Ingezonden"  :
 carnal purpose. Tjhe truth, as it is in Christ, as it is
 plainly revealed in the Scriptures, is never according                                               pella, Iowa.
 to the flesh. It is quite contrary to the flesh. It con-                                                 l-18-40.
 demns the world, the flesh, the natural man,  Iwithout                  Geachte Ds. Hoeksema:-
 compromise, implacably. It leaves the sinner nothing,
 absolutely nothing  ; nothing to flatter him, nothing in              Wil u het volgende een plaats geven in The
 which he may boast, nothing in self on which he may                Standard Bearer?
 build his hope, no excuse for his sin, no way out in                  Meer dan eens is reeds het vermoeden uit-
 the way of sin. The Word of God is a sharp  two-                   gesproken  in The Standard Bearer, dat onder-
 edged sword.        It cuts into the flesh. It condemns            geteekenden de bron zijn van Ds.  Zwier's
 also the flesh of the Christian.        It preaches right-         "Zwierigheden". Nu willen wij hier openlijk
 eousness. It demands of the people of God that they                ui4tspreken,  dat zulk een vermoeden waar is.
 depart from Babylon and have nothing to do with her                Ook staan lwij in voor de waarheid van het-
 ungodly deeds. It knows of no- compromise. Light                   geen wij geschreven hebben, daar het honderd
and darkness it never causes to merge. Christ and                   percent waar is. Wij  wenschen   ens  leed-
 Belial never go arm in arm. The believer has no                    wezen  echter te kennen  te geven over de hou-
 fellowship with the unbeliever. And thus that Word                 ding, die u, redakteur,  beide malen  geopen-
 always does its work. It either humbles a man in the               baard hebt tegenover ons, uwe tegenstanders
 dust, so that he is filled with sorrow after God ; or it           in deze zaak. Wij zijn uwe vijanden met;
 makes a bitter enemy of him, hardens him, so that                  denken  we1 anders over sommige zaken. Het
 he can never be brought to repentance.                             is echter onze bedoeling niet om onszelven
     It is because of this pure, uncompromising, im-                tegenover  u te rechtvaardigen. Wij zijn daar-
 placable, unbending character of the Word of God,                  toe wel gewillig, do& zoolang  ais u niet uwe
that always condemns the flesh, that the preacher who               onbroederlijke beschuldigingen intrekt, is het
through the gospel will not serve the Lord Christ, but              beneden  onze waardigheid.
his own belly, cannot use the truth, is in need of                                       Broedergroetend,
false doctrines.
     He  appe_als  to the flesh, not to the Spirit.                                           Jacob Dahm.
     The world, and also the "flesh" in the Church he                                         J. J. Stuursma.
must by all means have on his side.
     Their friendship and support he seeks.                       Onze lezers  zullen  misschien ietwat verwonderd
     And  ,he does so by denying the truth, so that it         zijn, dat  itk dit stuk, geschreven door twee heeren,
still looks like the truth, but is actually the lie.           die tot nu toe achter  onzen  rug om we&ten  met onze
    For his own belly's sake he grinds down the sharp          tegenstanders, die niet  alleen  allerlei inlichtingen (?)
edges of the truth, so that it does not hurt the flesh, aan Ds. Zwier  verschaften  over de prediking  van een
                                                               of twee hunner leeraren, maar ook aan anderen brieven
does not :bumble  the pride of men.
    And he destroys the Church !                               schreven, waarin ze mijn  naam bekladden, een plaats
                                                               geef in  ens blad. Maar ik meende, dat, waar  bet de
                                                  H. H.        heeren thans eindelijlk  belieft van achter  de schermen
                                                               weg te kruipen, ik niet mocht  weigeren, ze aan onze
                         -                                     lezers  voor te stellen. Daarom heb ik zelfs de moeite
                                                               genomen, om hun stukje op mijn schrijfmachine te
                       ATTENTION                               copieeren, om het te zuiveren  <van de vele taalfouten,
                                                               die  er in voorkwamen.
    Classis West of the Protestant Reformed Churoh,               Doch  nu wil ik hun ook antwoorden.
will meet D. V., Wednesday, March 6, 1940, at 9                   1. Het is natuurlijk niet  waar, dat in de  Standard
o'clock, in the Protestant Reformed Church at Rock Bearer ,het vermoeden zou zijn uitgesproken, dat de
Valley, Iowa.                                                  heeren Dahm en Stuursma de bewuste informateurs~
   Such as desire lodging will please correspond with waren, wier inlichtingen (?) door Ds. Zwier gebruikt
the Rev. P. Vis, Rock Valley, Iowa.                            werden, eerst in ens blad, daarna in De Waehter, om
                                                               den naam onzer leeraars te bekladden. Ons blad gaf
                                     M. Gritters,  SC.         eenvoudig een algemeen aanbod van  een particuliere


  daarom, omdat het Woord van God zoo verdraaid en
  verknoeid wordt wat voor mij te veel. is, schrijf ik in
 de Standard Bearer dit  stti.
                                 Met Broedergroete,
                                      S. Van der Kooij
                                      1038  Bemis St., S. E.
                                      Grand Rapids, Mich.             I.. The proper met&d of procediire  in respect to
                                                                            the care of the needy in general. And,
                                                                     II. The proper method of procedure in respect to
             3                                                              the care of widows.
                                                                    I. In the first place therefore we have the question,
                                                                what method must be followed by the deacons in their
                                                                are of the needy. It seems to pe that this first ques-
     The Proper Method.Of Procedure In                          tion, as it  was put to me, already suggests that there
      Respect To The Care. Of ,The. Needy*                      is in our churches a customary method, namely, `2'0
                                                                wait for the needy  to come to the deacons."  At  the
      From the information' that I have been able to same time it presents another possible method, namely,
 gather, I understand that you do not care for a long that according to lwhich the deacon goes out to seek
 address and an exhaustive treatment of the subject the needy. Moreover this question may be viewed
 at hand but rather a short speech that may serve               from more than one point of view and accordingly
 as an introduction to the discussion. I shall bear that suggests various other questions.
 in mind and endeavor to comply. And then I would                   The two methods suggested may be viewed as
 ask you, in turn, to bear in mind two things. The first standing opposed to one another, the one excluding
 is that I have had no practical experience in the things tie other. The question is then, in that light: Should
 of which I shall speak. Our own congregation is small we follow the customary method according to which
 and as long as I have been there our deacons have              the needy must come to the deacons, or should `we dis-
 not had any needy to care for. IHence you can under- pense  with it and adopt  ,the other method of pro-
 stand that I have not come into any practical contact cedure, according to which the deacons take the
 with the problems to be discussed this evening. In initiative and make their own investigation? When
 the second place I would have you bear in mind that tviewed  in this light, we have.two  alternatives, each
 what I shall say on this subject is to a great extent          exclusive of the other. Hence we stand before the
a matter of my own opinion. I ,therefore  stand to be choice of following the one or the other method of
 corrected, to that extent, by you who have for years           procedure. It also stands to reasori  that if we adopt
 been practically engaged in these labors and hence the latter course, namely, that of making  our own
 are able to produce proof for any contrary contention. investigation, then the former method automatically
Allow me to explain that I do not come lwilth my own falls away. For if the deacon makes his own investiga-
opinions arbitrarily but have been forced to do so              tion and is diligent in doing that, the needy will have
by the fact that I have looked in vain for opinions of          uo occasion to come to tie deacons, since their case
authoritative writers on this particular subject. In            will already be known to, and taken care of, by the
&he course of my study I have consulted various boo+,           &acoxIS.
one of which dealt exclusively with the office and                 However there is also another possible point  af
activity of the deacon, and was unable to find anything view of this question. That is that we do not consider
that would serve our discussion of this subject.                these two methods as exclusive of one another but as
     The committee, or person who asked me to speak,            ,upplementing  one another. Then we would not simply
gave me the privilege of choosing my own topic, as wait for the needy to come. to the deacons nor would
long  as the Itopic would include the questions which           Iwe exclusively follow bhe method of personal ievestiga-
`were to be discussed.          The questions were, and I tion. Instead we would adopt the former method as
quote, "The sulbject which we would like to discuss is          the standard or  ruEe and besides would also make
in this fashion :  Iwhether the deacons must wait to have       personal investigation.
the needy come to the deacons' meetings or whether                 Let us for a moment consider the old method. By
,they  (cthe deacons) try to find out in some other man-        Gdold  meihod"  we refer to that of waiting for the
ner, who needs help. And also whether we should needy to come to the deacons with their request for
make a distinction between the widows and needy of help. Just when and where it had its origin cannot
___I  -.-_" .-.._                                               be determined for certain. However, I believe that
*Address to the Deacons' Conference. Published upon request     it has been the standard method for the care of the
Of tie D0acons'  Conference.                                    needy and has been followed by the church for many


2 3 0                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

years. It cannot therefore be lightly dismissed and course this is not necessarily the fault of the deaconate;
set aside. The antiquity of a law or rule does not it may equally well be explained as being due to a lack
necessarily justify its present existence. We live in of understanding or an erroneous conception of the
a changing (world and therefore what may have been deacon's office on the part of the church in general and
an excellent rule or method  lfor many years in the           the needy in particular. Nevertheless one frequently
past, may under present conditions and circumstance receives the impression that people are inclined to
be inadequate and entirely out of date. Nevert.leless         look upon the deacons as Sorooges and Simon  Le-
the very fact that a certain rule or method has been          Gree's. The idea seems to be rather general, that
followed for many years necessarily gives it an added         when one receives help from the deaconate, he forfeits
and weighty significance.                                     his liberty and is under constant  surveilance  of the
    In considering this method, as Iwell as the other         deacons.    He is always  su,bject  to being questioned
method, we stand before the question what is its              in respect to the details of his own personal and private
peculiar advantage? I believe that the advantage of life and hence is constantly open to criticism on their
this old method may be briefly stated as follows:             part. The above idea may be an extreme but let it be.
this method places the issue squarely up to the needy         I wonder, and notice  that I make it a question,1 wonder
member. It definitely calls for the exercise of Christian sometimes whether the deacons do not give an occasion
principle on his part. It does so because it makes for such an opinion? Is the ides that there seems to
.him realize, in the  first place, that God has placed be a greater tendency among the deacons toward
him in  this particular circumstance of need ; in the meagerness rather than liberality,, entirely incorrect?
second place, that God has also made provisions for And if that is the case, at least to some extent, are then
such a circumstance in his church ; in the third place the needy not inclined to conclude that the mercies
that it is his duty to make use of such means as God          of Christ are narrolw? Are they not justified in con-
has provided and to thank God for them.  Hen,ce  .I cluding that the deacons conceive of bhem as a burden
believe that since this method demands initiative and and `are interested in them only to tihe extent of getting
action on the part of the needy, that it results in a          rid of their burden?
deep humility before God and a conscious life of                  Now assuming for. a moment that these things are
gratitude to Him for His gracious care.                       true, would that impression be taken away if this
         Now what is to be said  `for the second method? second method were followed? We leave that a ques-
Does it have any peculiar advantage? I believe it has. tion.
In general I would say *that this method tends to bring           Allow me to say, in justification of the deacons,
the office of the deacon nearer to the standard of what that I realize that, if it is true that the deacons are
it ought to be and actually is according to Scripture.        not liberal, the blame is not  aIways  to be laid at their
It seems to us that cthe deacon's work as a dispenser         door. More often it is the fault of the church as a
of mercy in the name of  Cihrist,  as office-bearer in His whole. The deacons have only a limited supply and
church, finds a much fuller and richer outlet when this if the church does not provide liberally, they cannot
second method is followed. It enlarges the scope of dispense liberally. Moreover they do have a responsi-
the deacon's  Iwork,  calls for greater activity and hence bility to see that the alms are distributed only to the
also lays `a greater conscious responsibility upon him.       needy and are not misused. `Moreover they themselves
Hence while in the former case the advantage is on are the objects of criticism on the part of the church
the side of the needy, in the latter case, i.e. if this       ,in general, many members of which would seem to
second method is followed, the  advantape  is  ,on the        know  more about a certain case and how it should be
side of the deaconate.                                        dealt with than the deacons themselves. Certainly
         Moreover there is the possibility that this second the church is not to be excused in this respect.
method  (would tend to a more favorable impression of,            (Since we have been asked to put this speech in
and attitude toward; the labors of the deacons on print, `we deem it necessary to add a few remarks in
the part of the church as a whole. I realize that by connection with bhe criticism expressed in the fore-
making such a statement I am treading on dangerous going. We do not feel that the above paragraph is
ground because a statement of this nature naturally sufficient to serve Las a justification of the deacons in
implies that the attitude of the church as a whole in the light of seeh adverse criticism. When we delivered
respect to the deaconate, is not what it ought to be.         this speech at the Deacon's Conference, we took a cer-
Moreover it lascribes  the reason for this unfavorable tain amount of liberty, with a view to eliciting a dis-
attitude, not to the church as a whole in the first place cussion.        We therefore simply mentioned' the above
but to the deaconate. However before we begin to              criticism and assumed that it might be true for that
justify one and condemn the other, let us ask, is this purpose and not because we are of the opinion that it
statement true? Let me adduce, as basis for this              is correct; the very opposite is the case. We are con-
statement, simply one fact. That fact is that the             vinced that such criticism, which is sometimes heard,
deacons are called in usually only as a last resort. Of is mostunjust.


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                  yJ 1
                 -."...                                      ..-ll_
    The truth is that people, who voice such  oriticism,      utmost to help those who are truly in need. And all
plainly show that they do not understand, nor make criticism that denies that fact stands condemned.)
an effort to understand, the calling of the deaconate.            We now stand before  the question ; which of these
One who is truly poor, not simply in material things, two methods is to be followed? If we must choose
but also "in spirit", will not make such accusations.         between them, so that it is a case of either or, we
People are usually only too quick to assume that they         would be in favor of following the f5rst or old method
are being treated unjustly; that is human, sinfully since it demands initiative and action on the part of
human. There are many who will come to the church             the individual needy, and since the second method, to
before they  have done their utmost to secure a job.          be successful, would demand an ideal condition in the
Some will even maintain that they "can not do just church as a whole and the needy in particular.
any kind of labor"; they must have employment in the             (However, we are not in favor of adopting one
particular line of work for whioh they have been cut          method to the exclusion of the other. Why shouldn't
Out". Others will ask for aid even before they have both methods be used? The first method as a standard
made the least move to live as economically as possible.      2nd the second method as supplementing it? I do not
They fail to understand that they must lower their bebeve  that we should or can lay down certain rules of
stand&-d of living in proportion with their fhrancial         method in the care of the needy. The needy are indi-
status and hence assume that it is the duty of the            viduals. We are not dealing with sticks and stones or
church to help bhem to the extent that they are able animals which remain passive in their treatment but
to continue on the same standard of living which they with self-conscious beings ; with people who have their
had before they became needy. They,. e.g., want to            own mind and will. Moreover each has his own pe-
.keep all the luxuries which they have enjoyed in the culiar characteristics. his own weaknesses and sins.
past, even though  such luxuries consume a definite           It is above all things necessary therefore that the
amount of money. Now it stands to reason that when deacon has a good knowledge of men. He must have
`:he deacons refuse to  help them or refuse to help what the Holbnd ca11s "menschen  kennis". The needy,
them to the extent which they desire, that they are YS individuals, are not all alike and therefore he cannot
exactly the kind who will talk about the injusti,ce  which deal with each alike. If he only could ! Then there
has been done them. Such people are also the first would be no question in respect to their care. Then
to complain that their liberties have been taken away the deacons could wait for the needy to come to them.
when they are asked to answer a few questions. They That I believe is the normal .way. But people are not
wi1l accuse the deacons of "snooping into private af- normal.           There are , some who run to the. deacons
fairs", of being hard-hearted, stingy, etc. etc.              right away; they seem to take pride in being needy,
    Surely, no one, Iwho in the spirit of meekness de- or find it the way of least resistance. And then ,again
sires aid of the church, expects that he will be helped there are others who will not come ; they seem to take
to the extent that he is able to live as `he did while pride in being independent and consider it something
he had a suflicient income. No one has a right to expect      to be ashamed of when they must be helped by the
that. That is not tihe calling of the church and the dea-     church. Hence we stand before the necessity of caring
cons have no right ,to do that. The church helps those for some who need care but refuse to come to the
that are needy; must be convinced that they are needy.        church for aid; What then should be the deacon's
And he who is truly in need will not object to stating attitude toward such that do not come? We all agree
the  fa$s in respect to his condition  freeIy and openly.     that we cannot say, "Let him suffer." That is not
Nor will he expect the church to make him rich or             merciful. That is not the attitude of Christ toward
afford him the comforts and luxuries which are en-            His people. We do not come to Him  ,but He comes to
joyed by those who are not needy. Rather will he              us. Our pride -prohibits our coming to Him but it
gratefully receive whatever help is given him.                does not hinder. Christ in coming to us. Such must
    Hence we consider all such criticism of the deacons also be the attitude of the deacon.. Such cases demand
as unjust and as arising from an evil source. It is investigation on the part of the deacons. When such
the one who is not really needy, who does not come a case is brought to their attention, they should not
because he is actually in need, but because he desires await for the needy to come but should go to him. They
more than he has and follows the way of least resist-         should work with  ;him and pray with him. (The deacon
sance to acquire it, that is offended when he is ques- ought to, be able to pray, by  all means. I cannot escape
tioned, dissatisfied with what he receives or angry           the impression th& the standard of the deaeonate  is
when he is turned away. And such a one will criticize lowered in our day. ' The elder should be able to pray ;
those, whose duty it is to help the needy.                    that is generally accepted as fact. But that is no
    Naturally we do not mean to say that the deacons less true of the deacon. However, that is not in the
are  perfect.       It may easily be that they  do.not always srope of our su,bject  at this time.) By means of per-
understand every case fully. Nevertheless as people sonal visitation and prayer, the deacon should attempt
of God we ought to assume that they seek to do their to win such proud and sinful needy,


232                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                             _~~-
       In this way, we believe that both methods could are also such widows as have the support `of their
be used to an advantage. The deacons should not be            children or near relatives.    We all know that the
rontent  to care merely for such cases as come to them family has a calling to perform if it can support the
directly.      Nor should he conceive of himself as a widow and should not attempt to shove this respon-
Sherlock Holmes, as a. detective, whose duty it is to         sibility on the church. If need be, the deacons ought
iind as many cases of need as he possibly can. I am to see to it that the relatives do their duty in this
sure that no one would appreciate such noseyness on respect.
his part.       Instead, let the deacons adopt the first         That leaves but one class of widows who require
method as the standard and follow the second method the aid of the deacons. That is, widows who are
in such cases that are brought to  f;hei$r  attention         widows indeed.     They are such as have no other
through some other indirect way.                              material means of support than the church. It lies in
       11. In respect to the second question, I shall be      the nature of the case that such must be helped by the
brief.                                                        deacons, at least for such a time as it will require the
       I believe that widows  are  cto be distinguished from widow to  ,adjust  herself to her new circumstances.
the needy in general. In the first place, they become         There is the possibility, of course, that one who is a
needy very suddenly. Their means of support is taken          widow indeed is that only for a time. She is sometimes
from them when their husband dies. Hence the                  able to support herself and family, through some kind
Iwidow is very suddenly set before the necessity of sup- ,of employment.
porting herself and her family.                                  However, in conclusion we would say, it is up to
       Moreover, we must not forget, that there is also a the deacon to investigate and  fmd out to whioh of
psychological element-that enters in. Not only does           these two classes a widow belongs.
she lose her means of livelihood but she loses her               Herewith we have presented our views. They are
mate. Hence, proceeding from the supposition that open to your criticism.
he was a  ch#ristian  and a good husband, she loses also                                        I thank you.
a spiritual, moral support. The head of the home is                                             Rev. H. De Wolf.
gone.      The guiding and ruling influence is suddenly
missing. The one  Iwho bore all the burdens of the
home with her is gone and she suddenly finds herself
with a double burden upon her.
       Viewed in this light, I think the case of the widow
stands in a class by itself. For that reason, I would                Prophecies Concerning Christ
say. she also needs special attention. IHence we are
inclined to conclude that it is proper that  tihe deacons        But the prophecies further present us with the
investigate every case of widowhood. They should not character of the gospel as well as of it's Author, and
wait for the widow to come to them but should go to           with a  descri,ption of the extent of His kingdom as
her and shew their willingness to aid her. After  all,        well as of His suffering. It was prophesied that the
her condition is such that she needs such support.            Messiah was to reveal the will of God to man, and to
She cannot help but feel that now she stands all alone.       establish  ,a new  .and perfect  covenant.--?  will raise
Therefore she needs someone who will go to her and            them up a  prophet,-and will put my words. in His
show a willingness to bear her burdens with her. What         mouth, and He shall speak unto them all that I shall
better opportunity can the deacons ever have to show command Him ; and it shall come to pass, that who-
the mercies of Christ? In so doing, the church,               soever  (will not hearken unto my words which He
through the office of the deacon, manifests that Christ shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.-Unto
is indeed a husband to the widow and a father to the          us a child is born, unto us a son is given; the govern-
fatherless.                                                   ment &all be upon his shoulder; and his name shall
  However; we would not ihave you conclude that we be called wonderful, counsellor,  the Mighty God, the
are of the  oninion  that every case of widowhood is          Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the in-
also a case of need. Scri,pture  distinguishes between crease of his ,governrnent  and peace there shall be no
the widows and those who are widows indeed. The end, upon the throne of David and upon his kingdom,
former are such as have no need of alms. since they to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with
,have another means of support. " Under this classifi- justice from henceforth, even for ever. The zeal of
ration we would list such widows, who are of a great          the Lord of hosts will ,perform  this.-There shall come
ape and have already lived a retired life with their forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse ;-he shall not
late husbands. It stands to reason that if when they judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after
were still together they could live a retired life that the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall
also now the widow is able to support herself. There he judge the poor, and reprove with  equity4 the


                                       TIHE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                              233
        -.------
Lord have called thee in righteousness, and will hold the prophecies of old describe the new law that was to
6hine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a abe revealed, and the <advent of the Saviour that was
covenant of the people, for a Light of the Gentiles,            to come;--"Rejoice greatly, 0 daughter of Zion; shout,
to open the blind eyes--Incline your ear and come ,O daughter of Jerusalem; Behold, thy king  cometh
unto me ; hear, and your soul shall live ; and I will make `unto thee.-How beautiful upon the mountains are the
an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure                 feet of him that bringeth good tidings of good ; that
mercies of David. Behold, I have given him for a wit- publisheth salvation--The  Spirit of the Lord God is
ness to the people, a leader and a commander to the             upon me, because the Lord bath anointed me to preach
people.-1 will set up one shepherd over them and                up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the  cap-
he shall feed them; and I will make with them a cove- good tidings unto the meek:  ,He hath sent me to bind
nant of peace, and it shall be an everlasting covenant;         tives ; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."
and I  {will set my sanctuary in the midst or' them;            Having read these words out of the law in the syna-
one king shall be a king to them ,all; neither shall they gogue, Jesus said, "This day is this Scripture fultilled."
defile themselves any more with their idols. They shall He was a teacher of righteousness and of peace, and
have one shepherd. They shall also walk in my judg- in Him alone it could have been fulfilled.
ments, and my servant David shall be their prince for              The same character of joy, indicative of the king-
ever--Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I             dom of the Messiah, is also given by the different pro-
will make  ,a new covenant;-and this shall be the cove- ,phets. He was to finish the transgression, to make an
nant that I will make with the house of Israel. After end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity;
those days, I awill put my law in their inward parts,           to sprinkle clean water upon the people of God, to
and write it in their hearts; and will ,be their God, and sprinkle many nations, to save them from their un-
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother,              &anliness, and to open a fountain for sin and for
they shall be my people ; and they shall teach no more uncleanness. "Let the wicked forsake his ways, and
saying,-Know the Lord ; for they shall all know me,             the unrighteous man his thoughts ; and let him return
from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith         unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him.
the Lord ; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will        I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin
remember their sin no more". A future and perfect no more." The Messiah was to be anointed to comfort
revelation of the Divine  twill is thus explicitly foretold.    all that mourn, to appoint unto them that mourn in
That these promised blessings were to extend beyond Zion, to give unto them  ,beauty for ashes,  tlhe oil of
the conties of Judea is expressly and frequently pre- joy for mourning, and the garment of praise for the
dicted :-" It is a light thing that thou shouldest be spirit of heaviness. And in the gospel of peace these
my servant, to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to              promised blessings are realized to all who believe, and
restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee          to  whom He is precious. We now see what many
for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my             prophets and wise did desire in vain to see. The
salvation unto the end of the earth."                           Christian religion has indeed been sadly perverted
t While the prophecies which are descriptive of the and corrupted, and its corruptions are the subjects of
glories of the  reilgn  ,of the Messiah refer to its universal prophecy. Bigotry has often tarnished and obscured
e.xtension and to the final restoration of the Jews, they all of its benignity. Its lovely form has been shrouded
detail and define, at the same time, the nature and             in a mask of superstition, of tyranny, and of murder.
the blessings of the gospel ; and no better description         But the religion of Jesus, from the lips of its Author
or definition could now be given of the doctrine of             and the pen of His apostles is calculated to d&use
Ghrist and of the conditions which He hath proposed             universal happiness. It is a doctrine of righteousness,'
for' the acceptance of man, than those very prophecies          a perfect rule of duty  ; it abolishes idolatry, and teaches
which were delivered many (hundreds of years before to worship God only. It is full of promises to all who.
he appeared in the  ,world. The gospel, as the name             obey it ; it reveals the method of reconciliation from ini-
itself signifies, declares glad tidings. Christ Himself quity, and imparts the means to obtain it; it is good
invited those who were weary and heavy laden to come tidings to the meek: it binds up the broken-hearted,
unto Him that they inight fmd rest unto their souls,            and presents to us the oil of joy for mouring, and the
He was the messenger of peace. He came, as He pro- garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, or the
fessed, to offer a sacrifice for the sins of the world,         most perfect consolation, under all the evils of life,
and to reveal the will of God to man. He published              that can be conceived by man. For the confirmation
the gospel of the grace of God. His  iword is still that of all these prophecies concerning it;. we stand not
of reconciliation, His law that of love ; and all the duty      in need of Jewish testimony, or that of primitive Chris-
He has prescribed tends to qualify man for spiritual            tians, or of any testimony  &whatever.  It is a matter
and eternal Felicity, for this is the sum and the object of experience and of fact. The doctrine of the gospel
of it all. What more could have been given, and what is in complete accordance with the predictions respect-
less could have been required? In similar terms do ing it. When we compare it with any impure, degrad-


234                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

iug, ,vicious  and cruel system'of  religion that existed in princes also shall worship.-The Gentiles shall come
the world when these prophecies were delivered, its to  tiy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.
superiority must-be apparent, and its  unrivalled  ex-          The Gentiles shall see thy righteousness:-I said, Be-
excellence must be acknowledged. Deities were then hold me, behold me, unto a nation that was not called
worshipped  wlhose  vices disgraced human nature ; and by my name. In that day there shall be a root of Jesse,
even impiety could  n'ot institute a comparison between         which shall stand for an ensign of the people ; to it
them and the God of Christians. Idolatry was univers- shall the Gentiles seek. I will make an everlasting
ally prevalent, and men knew not a higher homage                covenant with you. Behold, thou shall call a nation
than bowing down in adoration to stocks and stones,             that thou knowest not; and that knew not thee shall
and sometimes even to the beasts.          Sacrifices were      run unto thee."
everywhere offered up, and human victimes  often bled,              At the time these prophecies were delivered, there
Iwhen the doctrine of reconciliation for iniquity `was          was not a vestige in the world of that spiritual king-
unknown. And we Ihave only to look beyond the boun- dom and pure religion whioh they unequivocally repre-
daries of Christianity,-to Ashantee, or to India, or sent as destined to extend in succeeding ages, not
to China,-to behold the most revolting of spectacles            only throughout the  narraw bounds of the land of
in the religious .&es  and practices of man. Regarding          Judea, and those countries which alone the prophets
the superiority of the Christian  religion0  only as a          ;;new,  but over the Gentile nations also even to the
subject of prophecy, the assent can hardly be withheld,         uttermost ends of the earth.
that the prophecies concerning its excellence, and the                                                    G. M. 0.
blessings whioh it imparts, have been amply verified
by the peace-speaking gospel of Jesus.
       But, in ascertaining the accomplishment of ancient
predictions, in evidence of the truth, the unbeliever is
not solicited to  relinguish  one iota of his  scepticism
in any matter that can possibly admit of a reasonable                              For Our Nation
.doubt.  For there are many"  propheoies,  of the truth
of which every Ghristian is a witness, and to the ful-              In my previous article, under the above caption, I
filment of which the testimony even of infidels must be         pointed out that, according to Rev. D. Zwier, our
borne. That  the gospel emanated from Jerusalem; gospel-message - the gospel as we, ministers of Pro-
that it was rejected by a great proportion of the Jews ;        testant Reformed churches preach it, lacked "aange-
that it was opposed at first by human power; that *naamheid"   pleasantness. Zwier, so I wrote, ought to
pagan idolatry was overthrown before it; that it has            tell his readers just what he means. What he means
already continued for many ages, and that it has been           is not that our message for God's believing people lacks
propagated throughout many countries, are facts clear- "aangenaamheid".              He knows that our message to
ly foretold and literally fulfilled. "Rejoice greatly, 0        God's people is that with body and soul, both in life
daughter of Zion ; Shout, 0 daughter of Jerusalem; and death, they are not their own <but belong to Christ
behold thy king cometh  unto thee : he is just and lhav-        their faithful Saviour with all that this implies. Now
ing salvation ; lowly and riding upon an ass, and upon this message is characterized by "aangenaamheid" for
a colt the foal of an ass. And I will cut the chariot           God's people, `who stand in their faith. And this is
from Ephraim, and the horse from Jerusalem, and the             our message to them. Zwier knows and admits this.
battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall speak peace What the reverend means, when he says that our gos-
unto the heathen, and his dominion shall be from sea ple lacks "aangenaamheid" is that our message lacks
to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth.            "aangenaamheid"  pleasantness  for the unregenerated,
He shall be for a sanctuary; .but for a stone of stumb-         the wicked. In my former article the statement occurs
ling, and for a rock of offence,  to both the houses of that a gospel-message, not dishonoring to God, cannot
Israel ; for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants           possibly be pleasant to the unregenerate. I now want
of Jerusalem.-The kings of the earth set themselves t.0 enlarge on this.
and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord,             We direct our attention firstly, to this natural man.
and against his  Annointed."  In like manner, Christ This man is wicked, rebellious, obdurate in heart and
frequently foretold the persecution that awaited his will, impure in his affections. He is prone to all evil,
fo!lowers,  and the final success of the gospel, in defiance    dead in sin, and in bondage thereto, and thus unable and
of all oppositioa                                               unwilling to return to God, to reform the depravity of
       "The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day, and        his nature or to dispose himself to reformation. So
the idols he shall utterly abolish ;-from all your idols speak our Canons (third and fourth heads of doctrine,
will I cleanse you ;-I will cut  off the names of the idols Ads. 2, 3). This speech agrees perfectly with the
out of the land, and they shall no more be remembered. language of Scripture. "And you, who were dead in
To a servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise,              trespasses and sins ; wherein in time past ye walked


                                     T.HE  S T A N D A R D   BEARRR   i                                           235

according to the course of this world, according to the end then the preaching of the gospel is, must be made,
prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now work-    pleasing also for the godless, that is, this preaching,
eth in the children of disobedience:  ,among  whom also the gospel-message, as contained in Scripture  ,has
we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts       elements in it in which also the godless can and do
of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of take delight, so that a preaching not pleasant also to
the mind ; and were by nature the children of wrath, such who are devoid of the life of regeneration is not
even as the others (Eph. 2 :l-3). Therefore the world in accordance with Scripture. Such ,a .preaching  does
knoweth us not, because it knew not him (I Jo. 3). not set forth the true, scriptural promise of the ,gospel.
And ye shall be betrayed, bboth  by parents and bre- Such is the' reverend's contention. This `is his stand
thren, and kinsmen, and friends ; and of you shall they on the, matter under c,onsi.de,ration.        But this stand
cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated by all is  w*rang. The unregenerate one `being what he is,
for my names sake (Lu.  21:16,  17). There is none a sinner spiritually dead, hating God and His Christ,
righteous, no, not one.    There is none that  under-        God's gospel is not, cannot possibly be, pleasant to
standeth, there is none that seeketh aft"er God. They such a one. This ought to be self-evident. In the
are all gone out of the way, they are together become language to our canons, (Second Head ,,of doctrine,
unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not Art. V), the promise of the gospel is, "that whosoever
one. Their throat is an open sepulohre  ; with their belie&h  in Christ crucified,  &+x11  not perish, but
tongue they have used deciet; the poison of asps is shave. everlasting life." (The article continues, "This
under their lips: whose mouth is full of cursing and promise, to *gether with the command to repent and
bitterness: their feet are swift to shed blood; de- believe, ought to be declared and published to all
struction and misery are in their ways : and the `way of nations, and to all persons promiscuously and without
peace they have not known: There is no fear of God distinction, to whom God out of His good pleasure
`before  th&r eyes. Now we know that what things sends the gospel."
soever  the law saith, it saith to them under the law:          When Zwier therefore wrote, +"Voor  de anderen,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world           tot wie het Evangelie komt, hebben., ze niets dan een
may <become  guilty before God, (Rom. 11-19).                bevel  .en een dredging," he deliberately, against his
   Now Rev. Zwier (and his colleagues) maintain that better lmawledge,  penned an untruth about us. Our
#he gospel is pleasing, must be so preached as to be message to every hearer is not merely "believe", and,
pleasing to the man - the natural man - to which "if thou believest not, thou shalt perish," but also,
all the above scriptures apply. His contention is there- "Whosoever believeth shall be saved." Zwier knows
fore that the promise of the  agospel,  if correctly this.          Why this distortion of facts. on his part? `He
preached, is pIeasing  to such  (who are devoid of the may answer  this question.) Now to believe, I speak
life of regeneration, thus to such who are dead in sin, now of saving faith, is to forsake sin and to turn
and thus walk according to the course of this world,         to Christ, to the living God, thus to truth, holiness and
have their conversation in the lusts of the flesh, ful- righteousness. To believe is to repent of sin. It is to
fil the desire of the flesh and of the mind,.are  prone to dispair of self and to embrace Christ as the sinner's
<all evil, are in ,bondage  to sin, are unwilling to return only hope of salvation. It is to subscribe, as con-
to God, hate and know not God and His people, truth, strained `by the love  ,of God, to God's appraisal of man
Christ, and His cross, salvation, the heavenly. To           to the effect that man is by nature- dead in sin and
such the promise of the gospel is, must be made to be, that thus the sole author and finisher of his salvation
truly ,pleasing.  That this is the reverend's contention is the sovereign. mercy of God. And the life that is
is plain from what he wrote in "De Wachter" for Dec. promised to the believing is to know God. It is thus
26, 1939. "De poging, door onze in 1924 afgeweken heavenly perfection, joy and peace. It is to be like
,broeders  ondernomen, om door middel van eigen "in- God and thus to love and delight in ,Him. It is fellow-
terpretatie"  de bovenstaande uitdrukking in Art. 8 ship  Iwith Him and with the Son. Now if this be the
van onze Doors&e Leeregels, Hfdst. III-IV, krachteloos action of one who believes and if this is life, how can
to maken, heeft dus we1 droeve gevolgen.                     God's gospel-the gospel that whosoever believeth in
   "Zij  willen well "aangenaamheid" in  *de Evangelie- t?he crucified Christ shall  kave everlasting life, be
aprediking,  maar  - alleen voor de uitverkorenen. Voor pleasant to the godless? Do the godless loathe sin?
de anderen, (the unregenerate inculding the repro- Do they yearn to be freed from its power? Do they
bate. G.M.O.) tot wie bet Evangelie komt, hebben ze hunger after righteousness? Does the biblical concep
niets dan een bevel en eene dreiging." Tche reverend tion of life everlasting have attraction for them? And
d'oes admit here that we want  pleasantness  in' the the answer: the natural man wills not to repent. He
preaching of the gospel for God's believing people. loves sin and is in bondage thereto. And all `his thoughts
The fault `he has to find with us is that Iwe want no        are that there is no God. How then can God's gospel
elements of pleasantness in the gospel-preaching for be pleasant to the godless, to man devoid of spiritual
the unregenerate, the godless. According to the  rever-      life? It cannot be. And it is not. It was because


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236                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

Christ preached God's gospel,. that the wicked nailed sistently holds to the truth that God loves and wills
His blessed body to the cross. I read this in the Bible. to save only the elect. On the other hand, this holding
Has Zwier not read? If so, how is it to be explained to the doctrine that  #God loves and desires to save also
ti& he insists that the promise of the gospel is pleasant    the reprobate., allows the minister of the gospel to
also to the godless men, and that a gospel-preaching say to the wicked and unbelieving, "God loves you and
that contains no elements of pleasantness. for the god- desires to save you." Rev. Zwier in his preaching
less is not God's gospel, This is rather amazing.            ~holds  to this latter erroneous doctrine. Why? The rea-
       However,. rightly considered, Zwier admits that son is His desire to have something gratifying to say to
God's gospel-the promise to the effect that whosoever the godless, his insistence that in his <preaching he ,be
ibelieves  in Christ crucified shall have life everlasting, pleasing also to the  Iwicked,  to such devoid of spiritual
thus the declaration that  ,God saves believing  people-     life.
contains no elements of pleasantness for the godless.            But let us now ask, Does a minister of the gospel,
He tadmits  this through his mixing the promise of God's through his mixing his preaching with these erroneois
gospel twith  the teaching that God is kindly disposed elements of. doctrine, actually succeed in rendering
toward His people not only but toward the reprobate his preaching pleasant to the wicked? Does the minis-
as well and that He earnestly desires to save also the ter of the gospel, through his proclaiming to wicked
latter. Attend to the following from  his pen, "De           men that God regards them in love and desires to save
liefelijkheid van hetaanbod  de heils ontbreekt in hunne     them, render his preaching pleasant to them? Does it
prediking. Maar kon ons  edat verwonderen? Volgt truly delight the wicked to be told this? Indeed not.
dat niet vanzelf uit hun loochening van de gemeene And the reason is that, being what they are, ungodly,
gratie? Als God- zelf geen  enkel.  ,greintje van  gun& they hate and despise God, His  .glories, including His
of gratie, van barmhartigheid of lankmoedigheid, lheeft love, mercy, and compassion and thus also the  Ch#rist,
voor de goddelooze wereld. . . .cwaarom  zouden  zij dan the cross, and the prepared salvation of God, in  the face
barmhartiger ,wezen  dan ,God" (De Wachter, for Dec. of which  God's glories are seen.. Paul tells us this
26, 1939) ? Here it is indirectly asserted that "God literally, "And thinkest thou this, 0 man, that judgest
barmhartigheid heeft voor de goddelooze wereld" that them which do such things, and doest the same that
is, "voor de  verworpenen".       This erroneous teaching thou shalt escape the judgment of God? Or despise&
Rev. Zwier distils from various scriptures and from a thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and
certain statement  occuring  in the Canons. And Ezek. longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God
33 :11 is made by the Rev. to set forth the doctrine that    lteadeth thee to repentance" (Rom.  2:3, 4).         What
in His kind ,regard  for the reprobated ones, God also       careth the godless one whether or no God-and  I speak
desires or wills to save them.                               now of God and not of an idol-loves and desires to
   Now why should the brethren, the leaders of thought save him. Despising ss ,he does God and the cross, the
in the Christian Reformed  Churoh  be so insistent that      very idea causes him to shudder. But will not the
the preaching of the gospel contain these erroneous godless one take a certain carnal delight in Rev. Zwier's
elements of doctrine? This can be explained. Con-            preaching? Whether he  twill or no depends upon how
sider that this holding to the doctrine  that God in His the reverend answers certain questions put to him by
love is ,resolved  to save only the elect, allows the minis- such a one. Firstly the question, "Am I actually to be
ter of the Word to say to the wicked, to the unbelieving saved ?" Secondly, "Who sovereignly decides whether
in lhis audience only this, "God loves and is resolved or no I am to be saved, God or me?" If Rev. Zwier
to save only His people, the ones whom He  chose unto        crucifies that desire in him to be pleasing in  his preach-
life eternal in Christ. He is thus resolved to save such ing to the godless, he will say, "Whether or no God will
only who bear the mark of election, to wit, a faith          actually save you, I know not. All I can say to you
that expresses itself in true sorrow for sin. Hence,         is this : Whether you will be saved depends not on you
whether God loves and desires or wills to save you,          but on God alone. If in His sovereign love He knows
wicked one, remains to be seen. If you be converted          you from before the foundation of the world in Christ,
and by His mercy repent and, forsaking your sin,             if Christ has died also for you, if He was raised also for
turn to Him, He in His sovereign love will save, yea,        your justification, certainly, you will be saved. If not,
has and is saving you. On the other hand, your per- you will perish in your sins. Of yoerself you cannot
sisting in year unbelief is the evidence that He wills       will to be saved. You can only will to be disobedient
not to save you, that in His wrath He prepares you and unbelieving. On the other hand, if the Rev. replies
for eternal perdition through His  Ihardening  your          under the impulse of ,his desire to please the godless
`heart by the  4preaching of the gospel." Now this mes- in his preaching, he will say to this Iwicked  one, "Christ
sage, preaching is anything but pleasant to the wicked died for you. Your sins are thus atoned for. God loves
one, the unbelieving. Yet this is the only conceivable you and earnestly desires to save  you ; but whether  YOU
message that the minister of the Word can have for           will actually be saved depends altogether upon whether
the wicked and unbelieving, if in his preaching ,he con-     you will choose to be saved. If not, God stands power-


                                     T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             237

less." Only if this be the reverend's reply, will his through Christ.           It really requires an astonishing
m;reaching  be pleasant to the godless one. Why? Be- amount of  courage--courage  born of saving  grace-
cause he dethrones God in his preaching and enthrones to tell the truth about God especially when speaking
man, the godless one. Certainly,  suoh preaching is into a microphone of a radio station. For then the
pleasing to the godless. And such preaching only, and minister contacts the world, is addressing, for all he
none ,other. If so, may the ministers of the Word be knows, thousands of worldlings also. And then to
pleasing to  the godless, to sinful flesh in their congre- make the good confession, to proclaim the full, pure
gations? May they so preach as to provide the godless, truth abut God? How long would the minister be per-
this flesh with a  meal reason for delighting in their mitted to continue preaching (from a radio station)
preaching? Is this the will of God?                         if he would? Not very long, certainly.
   But are there not cases on record of unregenerated          There is still another reason why a minister of the
persons rejoicing in the  .pure preaching of the gospel? Word will want to please sinful flesh in his preaching,
In the parable of the sower (Matth. 13) there appears       the reason, namely, that he holds to the view that a
an unregenerate one who "hears the word and anon preac!hing  setting forth the full truth about God and
witi% joy receiveth it." But this joy is not genuine.       His grace is fit to be heard only  .by God's believing
The person does not truly love the gospel. For "when people, by advanced Christians, and not by unbelieving,
tribulation or persecution ariseth because of the Word,     unregenerated men, that the latter can be  `won for
by and by he is offended."                                  Christ  aby a preaching in which such elements  uf doc-
   The minister of the Word, who is bent on pleasing trine as the sovereign mercy  Bnd grace, of God do not
the unregenerate in his preaching finds himself under appear or appear as falsified. T,his view is as stupid
the necessity of falsifying the truth more and more. as it is untrue.
The attempt therefore to please the sinful flesh in the        The unregenerate cannot be won for Christ. Be-
preaching is the beginning of the end. And this end fore a sinner turns to Christ, he must be given a new
is not merely Arminianism, nor even Pelagianism, but heart. Then ihe *will be converted, that is, forsake his
out and out Modernism and .ultimately  Atheism. For sins and turn to Christ. But to preach to sinners with
the wicked continue to complain until the preaching has `new `hearts is to preach to God's people. And it is only
been freed from every element of truth. The minister in such that the preaching bears fruit. We, therefore,
of the gospel does not permanently satisfy them by the invite Rev. Zwier to advance one rational and biblical
proclamation that man sovereignly determines his des- reason why he insists that the minister of the Gospel
tiny. The  Iwicked  one, hearing this, will continue to ask should render his preaching pleasing to the wicked.
questions. IHe will want to know  ewchat God will do                                                     G. M. 0.
with him in case he chooses not to repent. He will not
be satisfied with being told that he then, after his
hardness and unpenitent heart treasures up unto him-
self wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of
the righteous judgment of God; who will render to
every man according to his deeds: to them who by                            Jehovah Or  Baa1
patient continuance in we&doing  seek for glory and
honor and immorality,-eternal Tife ; but unto them                       And if it seem  eviI unto you to serve the Lord,
that are contentious, and do not obey the. truth, but                   choose ye this day whom ye will serve; whether
obey unrighteousness,-indignation and anguish, upon                     the gods which your gradfathers served *that were
every soul of mean that  doeth evil (Rom. 2  :5-g).                    on the  other  side of the flood, or the gods of
Hearing this reply, the wicked one says that there is                   the  Amorites,  in whose land ye dwell: but as
no  lhell, no eternal retribution, no God to render to                  for me and my house we will serve the Lord.
every man according  to his works. And this is w&hat                                                   Joshua 24:X.
!he lwilI want to hear in the preaching. Truly, this de-       Apparently Joshua speaks foolishly here. He bids
sire to please the wicked, sinful, flesh, in the preaching the children  of Israel to  c!hoose-between  Jehovah
is the beginning of the end. Yet, Rev. Zwier is pro-        and the gods of the Amurites. As if Israel would
claiming that this must be done. The minister, he in- choose anyone but Jehovah. Israel was the Lord's
sists must preach according to the heart of the godless, ,portion.  He found him in a desert land, and in the
must seek to please in his preaching  sinfu1 flesh. Really, waste howling wilderness. He had led Israel about,
this is nothing short of amazing.                           instructed him, kept him as the apple of His eye. As
   Why should ministers of the Gospel in the ,pulpit        an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young,
and from radio stations. be preaching according to the spreadeth abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth
heart of the (wicked? There must be reasons: They ,them upon her wings, so had the Lord alone led Israel.
may be afraid and ashamed to tell the world the             He had made Israel ride on the high places of the
plain and full truth about God and His redemption earth, that he might eat the increase of the fields, ahd


     233                                    T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

     he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil          nature children of wrath. But He mhath  blessed us with
     out of the flinty rock.                                     all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
I           And what. had not the Lord done before Israel's according as He chose us before the foundation of  tie
     very eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto       world.
his servants and unto all his land. These great won-                How rich in mercy He is. How great His love
     ders Israel had seen. Then He led them forty years          wherewith  !He loved us. Even when we were dead in
     in the desert. Their clothes had not waxed old upon sins bath He quickened us together with Christ and
     them, and their shoes had not waxed old upon &eir           hat%  raised us up together and made us sit in heavenly
     feet. The Lord had brought His people in. the land of places with Christ Jesus.
     Canaan, having driven outf rom before them *all the            How He befriended His people. There is that in-
;people..  Thus He  Ihad  ,given them a land for which heritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth
     they <did not labor, and cities which they builded not,     not away, reserved in heaven ; that blessed state de-
     and vineyards and olive yards which they had not fined in Scripture as life eternal, a life with Him on the
,planted.                                                        new earth, peopled by the redeemed race with whom
            And now they are asked to choose between the Lord the tabernacle of God will .be..
     who had so marvelously befriended them and these               The Israel addressed by Joshua was in Canaan,
other gods. Preposterous ! As if Israel would now had entered the (typical) rest that remaineti  for the
     repect  Jehovah, and choose these other gods. Such a neople of God. The true land of rest is heaven, en-
     choice would go against all reason, How unutterably tered by Ghrist, the true Joshua. -Having  ceased from
     foolish and amazingly wicked such a choice would be.        His own works, He entered His rest with His people.
            Who are these other gods whom Joshua places over From the point of view of right,  ,according  to  their
     against Jehovah? These other gods are, vanity, the state, this people is in heaven as well `as the Israel ad-
     creations of the Amorites, the very  Iwork of men's         dressed by the typical Joshua. We, too, can say that
     hands, idols with mouths that speak not, with eyes that the victory  thas been won, that the enemy  `has been
     see not, with ears that hear not, with noses that smell driven out from before us, that we have received a land
     not, with hands that handle not, with feet that walk for which we did not labor, cities which we build not,
     not.                                                        vineyards and olive yards which we did not <plant.
            How utterly absurd and  inconceibably  wicked to        True, we are still on earth, in the desert. But how
     throw Jehovah over for other gods. The people facing tender His care over us. Is  IHe not leading us about,
     Joshua feel and admit this. They say, "God forbid           instructing us, keeping us as, the apple of His eye,
     that we should forsake the Lor,d  to serve other gods ; bearing us upon His wings, making us to ride upon
     for the Lord our God, He it is that brought us up and the high places of the earth? What a marvelous dis-
     our fathers out of the land of Egypt, from the house of play of fathomless love !
     of bondage,  an'd which did those great signs in our
     sight, and preserved us in the way. . . ."                     Today, the true Joshua, Christ Jesus, speaketih  to
            Yet  t!he  `people of themselves cannot will to do Yis people : Choose ye this day whom ye will serve ;
     otherwise than to conclude that it is evil to serve the     whether the gods of this world, the gods of  tlhe  Amor-
     Lord and that it is good to serve other gods, Thus God      `tes in whose land we dwell.
     is  reSected  as a reprobate. being. Therefore Joshua          Ghoose  we Imust  and choose we <do between Him
     said unto the people, "Ye cannot serve the Lord". . . .     and other gods. We know what our choice ought to
     But God had chosen Israel and for this reason only          `w..,. As Israel of old we say: "God forbid we should
     Israel chooses  :Him.  How unbelievably foolish and         forsake the Lord to serve other gods; for the Lord
     sinful this Israel by nature is. The natural Israel for- our God He it is that brought us up out of the land of
     sook Jehovah. Waxing fat, Jeshurum forsook God Egypt. . .  ."
     which made him. It seemed evil unto them to serve              What is our dhoice? By ourselves we forsake Him
     Him. So  ti.ey sacrificed unto devils, to gods whom they and choose other gods. Herein it appears how  un-
     knew not. Of the Rock that begot them they were un- .speakably  foolish,  .and  ,amazingly  wicked we are by
     mindful, and forgot God that formed them. So did nature. For `we (belong to Hm ; and the gods of this
     they show themselves up as a froward generation.            worId are vanity, the vile creations of man, destitute
      ' "Choose `ye this day whom ye yill serve." We, too, of power, wisdom, might, mercy. `Yet if left to our-
     must  choose  between Jehovah and other Gods. Will          selves, we prostrate ourselves before the gods of this
     we not choose' Him?-  We, His people, His portion? He world, sacrifice to devils, and of tlhe Rock that begot
     found us dead through trespasses and sin. guilty, ill-      I's, we are utindful.
     deserving, condemnable, walking according to the               What  ,a choice! How evident that He  <had to do
     course of the world, in spiritual bondage, a slave to more than make possible our salvation. iBow  evident
     sin, having our conversation in the lusts of the flesh,     that He must actually save us. How evident that the
     fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, by     greatest possible display of  ,divine mercy and  right-


                                        T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                       239
-
eousness  can awaken not the slightest response in  *he       B-1. This Joshua well understood. What he there-
sinner's  $heart  if that  iheart  be not renewed.            fore exhorts the double-hearted in his audience to do is
     We choose Him because He chose us and in and             to come out into the open, and make a public choice,
through us chooses Himself.                                   openly array themselves either  *on  tlhe side of  Baa1
     "Ghoose ye  t&is   ,day  wfhom  ye shall serve." That    or on the side of God.
He is the aauthor of our good choice, that we choose             Let them compare,.appraise,  and reach definite con-
as His instruments, does not remove the necessity of clusions, and take a definite stand. If Baa1 is god, let
our choosing, nor renders our choosing superfluous. them serve him.
Man's life is a perpetual choosing between good and              Let them declare him to be :a being adorable and
evil, though it be true that trhe natural man can do          therefore worthy of their devotion.
nothing but will to dhoose  the wrong, will to choose the        Joshua's exhortation, one feels, is iholy sarcasm.
gods of this world. Choosing is  ,an action of the            Baa1 is no god. To choose him is to do the absurd, the
rational moral creature and sets man off from his             unreasnable,  the  ,frightfully  wicked thing. For Je-
fellow creatures as a responsible being.                      hovah is God.
     God wills to be served only as a being chosen by                                                   G. M. 0.
His worsihippers,  ohosen  in distinction from darkness,
from the lie, from gods that are no gods, from gods
that constitute the dark and horrible reverse of His
own  Iblessed  self. Therefore He not only  pIaces His                   Puritanism In England
bblessed  self within the range of our vision, but also
confronts  93s people with the dark reverse of His               The Puritans had always insisted in a strict ob-
adorable self, namely, the devils at wchose  .&mine  the      servance of the Sabbath. This strict Sabbatism was
world worships,' and He bids us to compare, to ap-            aided by the publication of a work bearing the title,
praise, to choose, to decide whether it is evil to serve      Doctrine  of the Sabbath. In this work a plea was made
Him. And in choosing Him we declare that we loathe for the perpetuation of the fourth commandment in
darkness, hate sin, and love Him, as a being blessed          Jewish rigor.
forever.                                                         In opposition to Puritanism King James issued his
     That we are always under the necessity of choosing famous Declaration Sports in which he advocated the
between God and Mammon, truth and the lie, light o!d popular games and dances on the Sabbath. This
and darkness, Christ and Belial, heaven and hell,-            action of  ithe king aroused Puritanism and from this
means that life is an unbroken test trial. But in this time on it began to grow into a  pohtical  force. The
trial we are kept by His power through faith.                 king's Declaration of Sports seemed to the Puritans a
     "Choose ye this day whom ye will serve." `If  Baa1 command to disobey the will of God. This in addition
is god, if it seemeth good to thee to serve !him, choose      to his high-handed treatment of Parliament and his
him'. Such is the force of Joshua's words. There was failure to support the hard-pressed Protestants in
a reason for this exhortation. There are men who              Germany in the opening of the  Thi*rty-Year  War were
apparerttly  do not choose, the double&earted,  two-faced resented and drove the commons into a steadily grow-
persons, who think it possible to serve Jehovah and           ing political sympathy  with Puritanism. The Angli-
Baa1 at once. Instead of either choosing God or  Baal,        cans on the other hand were identified with the crown.
they choose both God and Baal. Instead of saying that In 1625 King James' reign came to an end for in that
either Baa1 or Jehovah is God, they say that Baa1 as year he died. The outlook in his realm was ominous.
well as Jehovah is God. They  `are people with two            He was succeeded by his son Charles  lbotih in England
hearts, one heart for Baal, one heart for God, people         and in Scotland. Besides the crown, his father had
with two faces, one face smiling upon Jehovah, the            bequeathed one other gift upon him, a book of which
otiber smiling upon Baal. So it is apparently. In real- he (King James) was  l3he author. It bore the title
ity suoh men have but one hea+a heart going out to            of  Basilicon   Doron.   The work was meant to supply
Baal. In reality there is but one face to these person- the prince with a model on which to moId his character
ages, a face smiling upon Baal.                               and a set of rules to govern. The two leading doctrines
     It is quite impossible to love and be friendly with of this book were  (I) the divine right of kings, (2) the
both God and Baal. The two are opposites from every anarchical and destructive nature of  xpresbyterianism.
point of view. God is light,  Baa1 is darkness. The Monarchy, says James, is the true pattern of divinity.
former is the inclusion of all that is lovely. The latter Kings sit upon God's throne in earth. The subject may
is the  extensi.on  of the vile and corrupt creature.         make no resistance but by flight. Under no circum-
Friendship for Baa1 is therefore enmity toward God. stances may they take up arms against a king. For
One must choose therefore and in  clmtkng one or the nroof he adduced #he Scripture in which the prophet
other every second of his existence.                          E'isha flees to the wilderness ,&fore the wicked king
     He apparently friendly with  abboti is  choosing  for    instead of instigating an insurrection. He also cited


240                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R

the example of Samuel, who though he predicted that                   Charles finally took complete leave of Parliament
the king's rule would become -oppressive, nevertheless and governed alone. He began to tax his subjects
admonisJhed  the people to submit. It can readily be Iwhenever  and to whatever extent it suited him. Those
understood that he hated Puritanism, as this move- that refused to pay  %e imprisoned. The right hand
ment represented  ,a challenge to his ecclesiastical               man of the king was Bishop Laud, archbishop of
authority. James believed that the king fell with the              Canterbury. He was a man of austere manners, in-
bishop, so that his motto was, "no bishop, no king."               dustrious habits,  ,and violent zeal. Laud acquired com-
We fmd this paragraph in the aforesaid *work, "Take                plete  ascendency  in the councils of Charles. The king
heed, therefore, my son;to such Puritans in the church was `greater on the throne, but the subjects were ruled
and commonwealth whom no deserts can oblige, neither according to Laud's word. In  other  words, Laud was
oaths nor promise (bind, breathing nothing but sedition, the power ~behind the -throne. As a churchman Laud
aspiring without measure, railing without  *reason, and with the help of the king enforced with a heavy liand
making their own imaginations without any warrant conformity of reli,gion  and worship in England to his
of the Word the square of their conscience. I protest own views of what religion and worship ought to be.
before the Great `God that ye shall never find with any His sole aim `was to rescue Christianity from t!he gothic-
high!and or border thieves  ,greater  ingratitude and              ism or the rudeness of the Reformation and to bring
more lies and viIe purgeries than with these fanatic back the ancient splendor which had characterized wor-
spirits. Suffer therefore not the principles of them to ship in the Greek and Roman temples. He provided
brook your land." This book was Charles' Bible. All candlesticks `and' copes for the bdministration  of the
Parli,ament,  laws, charters, privileges, had their being Lord's Supper. He set up a large crucifix above the
from the king and might at his good-pleasure ,be put               altar and fitted the window of the chapel with a picture
out of existence. To deny this ,doctrine  was the highest representing God. Such of the clergy who refused to
crime of which a subject could be guilty. There was conform to and to imitate his fancies were persecuted
but one man in all England who could plead right of ias guilty of schism and rebellion against ecclesiastical
conscience and  that was  ,he. All his  life was taken government. A Lectureship `was forbidden ; Puritan
up with-a fight against presbyterianism, for the reason preachers silenced ; the Declaration of Sports +re-issued.
that presbyterianism, or let us say, Cal~vinism';  proceed-           Laud made the distinction between the Anglican and
ing from  tiih sovereignty of ,God, insisted on the divine the Roman Catholic Church so narrow that, as one said,
maxim that God shall be obeyed rather than man, that they could hardly see this distinction at Rome. Accord-
a king shall be obeyed only in so far  that the rule               ing to Laud's diary the Pope twice offered him a red
he imposes upon his subjects agrees with the rule of h a t .
God as found in God's Word.                                            In the civil courts the Puritans were  severeIy
       This principle spelled both civil and religious liberty handled,  wihile the Anglicans were treated with great
in their right sense. Of this liberty Charles was an clemency ; whiIe the former were fined, favors were
inveterate enemy. He fought it with all the zeal that showered upon the latter. The scaffold was not set
was in him ; he pursued his conflict through a succes-             up but short of this every severity was employed which
sion of tyranies,  doublings, plunders, and battle&eIds            might compel the nation to worship according to the
until he arrived at the scaffold where he lost his head. form prescribed by the king and the archbishop. Under
       As to his nature, Charles was a stronger man than t%ese  circumstances many Puritans began to despair
his father and morally a better man. As a religionist              of their religious and political outlook and to plan to
he was sincere, his family life was pure. He was also follow the Separatist across the Atlantic. What they
a man with more personal dignity than his father.                  sought was the freedom to preach and to organize.
       The first error of Charles was his French marriage.         Between 1628 and 1640 at least 20,000 Puritans crossed
It joined  him to a daughter of the Roman  Gatholic                the Atlantic.
Church. In the eyes of his countrymen his  Cathalic                                                          cr.  lL'  3.
wife was the link that joined him to the Pope.
       His second mistake was his dissolution of three
successive Parliaments. The reason for  l&s king's
action was that these ParIiaments  insisted upon <redress                                 NOTICE
of their grievances before they would vote  any support                      TO OUR WESTERN READERS
of money. The backbone of the  .House  of Commons
were Calvinists.        Parliament had many grievances                Please take notice of the expiration date on your
against the king. To prevent Calvinistic discussions Standard Bearer. If you are in arrears, send (Money
the king caused a  decIaration  to be  prefixed  to the `Or,der)  to Mr. R. Schaafsma, 524 Henry Ave., S. E.,
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                                        A   R e f o r m e d   S e m i - M o n t h l y   M a g a z i n e
                PUBLISHED BY  THX  REFORMED FREE PUBLISHING ASSOCIATION, GRAND RAPIDS, MICH.


      Communirrrticma   relation   t     o     
                                              .snh-    EditsRev. H.  Hoe&ma,  Rev.  G. M. Ophoff,
21
/I                                                              Req.  :T:::frR:::Vos.
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                                                       Boer, Rev. M. Griti&,  Rev. B. Eok, Rev. 61 Hank&
                                                       Rev. G. Lubbers, Rev. R.  Veldman,  Rev. H.  V&I-
                                                       man, Rev. A. Petter,  Rev. J.  Vander Breggen.

Vol. XVI, No. 11 Entered as Second  Class mail                              MARCH I, 1940                         Subscription Price $2.00
                             matter at Grand Rapids.  Yi&.                                               *

                                                                                  of  ,many mansions, tlhat they might also be where He is.
                                                                                  It was profitable for them that tHe should go away,
                                                                                  for then .the Comforter could come, Whom He -w,ould
                                                                                  send from  the Father. . . .
                     The Offending Hour                                               And the disciples thought  .they understood.  : And
                                                                                  believed. . . .
                                                                                      And yet, "the hour" was still coming!               .
                            Behold, the hour cometh,  yea, is now                     And the horror of that -hour would far surpass their
                        come, that  .ye shall be. scattered, every darkest forebodings of it. .They  -believed, yes, indeed.;
                        man to his own, and shall leave me but in that hour their -faith would be shaken to its
                        alone: and yet I am no-t alone, because                   foundations.
                        the Father is with me.                                        Hence, the trying question .of Jesus.: Do ye. now
                                                            John 16:S.Z.          believe? Now? . . . . .
     The Hour!                                                                        3&e `*hour" is, indeed, already come, yet it is still
     It was coming  !                                                             coming!                                      "     .
     Yea, it has already come, though  tihe disciples did                             And as it advances the moment will arrive that  its
not yet realize its awful implications.                         I                 real meaning will ,be an offense to you !
     Somehow they are filled with fear and apprehen-                                  It will scatter you !
sions of  wi,l things impending that night: their hearts                              Each will turn to his own ! And -.me ye will leave
were troubled.                                                                    akme!
     Strange things !had already happened.                                            Amazing hour !
     `Phe last supper, the, ,passover  the Master had so                                                                                       t
greatly desired to, celebrate-with &hem, had- been eaten  ;
and it bd been. changed i,nto a f&St of commemoration
and participation of the broken body and shed blood of                                The hour .is come !
their Lord. Tlhe traitor had been  d!ismissed, though                                 Of that hour Jesus had often spoken.
the  ,discip'es   bad not all understood for what evil pur-                           Always that Ihour stood clearly before His. -con-
pose he had departed  f.r~m  the upper room, and knew s c i o u s n e s s .
not  that even at this very hour he was plotting with the                             Even at the  `very beginning of His public ministry,
enemies to betray tlhe Lord unto them. And the be- when  at the wedding in  Cana His mother had suggested
loved Master had repeatedly spoken of His departure that He should show. forth His  .power and glory, littIe
from them, and, told them that they would not be able realizing, in what way only that glory could be attained,
to follow Him wither He went. . . .                                               He had ,been  mindful of His Ihour and replied : Woman,
     And now they were on-their `way to the garden.                               what have I to do with +hee ? My hour is not yet come !
     Across the brook- Cedron .                                                       Often,  too2  &hen His enemies, whose hour was al-
     ,4nd words  of. comfort the Lord had addressed                               ways come, Iwould take and kill; Him, :He had escaned
.tQ' tilEra.                                                                      from their midst, or they had been. restrained. from
     Their hearts *must not be troubled. He would go                              laying their hands on Him, because His hour  had.not
-to the Father, in Whose house there are many man-                                 yet come1
sions. And He would  ,prepare  place- for them, return                                 Of this hour the Lord also spoke now, to His dis-
to &hem,  receive &hem with all His own in that house                              ciples.


242                                     T,HE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                 Y
       No, He does not merely mean to tell them that a this relation would appear to be broken. A sharp  con-
time will come when they shall leave Him alone, w,hen          flict there would arise in that awful hour between
each one of them shall turn  to His OWII  and they all         their relation to Him and their own interests, and the
&all be scattered. On the contrary, He speaks of the latter #hey would `pursue.  . . _.
hour, His hour, the same hour of which He had often                And leave Him alone !
spoken, and warns them, that as soon as this hour shall            In the  Ihand& of His enemies they would leave Him
be revealed to  them in its real significance, in its  hor-    in that hour, without assistance, without defense,  with-
rible darkness, tihey shall be offended in Him and turn        out the comfort of their relation&p. . . .
to their own interests!                                            And thus it happened when the hour was come!
       The hour!                                                 None of them remained with Him in the hour of
       God's hour it was, the hour appointed by the Father, need !
when all things should be prepared fur the slaying of              All fled!
the Lamb, for the judgment of the world, for the  cast-            None of them uttered a  word in His defense in the
ing out of the prince of this world, for the reconcilia-       hour of His trial!
tiorn of the world, for the shedding of the blood of               All were scattered !
atonement, fur the outpouring of the  ,vials  of God's             The `hour <had come!
wrath against the sin of mankind, for the redemption
of  tlhe elect, for the crushing of the serpent's head! It                                                                  . :
was the "due time". For, in "due time" God would                                                                     ,,G
,heve His Christ die for the ungodly.  snot  any time
could He die. It must be at the appointed time. And
because it was God's  shour, it was also Jesus' hour, for          Offending hour !
He had come to do the Father's will. And because it                Was ever beloved Master so utterly forsaken by His
was the Father's hour and His hour, it must needs be Own?
the *hour of the &rld,  the hour of the powers of dark-            Why, then, should He, the most Beloved of all, be
ness. Even though they had decreed  tJhat it should so forsaken by those that loved Him?
not be on the feast, lest there should be uproar among             Surely, it cannot be <that these eleven men were
the people, this was "the hour", and all must hasten           wholly devoid of courage and were motivated by  com-
in prepare themselves for it:  "wihat thou. doest, do          mon cowardice when they were scattered and each
quickly!)`. . . .                                              turned to lhis own!
       That hour had even now come !                               Neither can their attitude and action is that hour
   For already the powers of darkness were hastening' be explained from lack of love for Him!
to play their part in the drama that must be enacted in            With all their heart they were attached to Him.
this hour. Even as the Lord, comforting His eleven             That they should ever leave Him alone, depart from
disciples, made His way through the darkened streets Him, forsake Him, seemed utterly impossible to  Wem.
of the  "HXy City", across the brook Cedron to the             Had they not confessed it, that He had the words of
garden of sorrows, the traitor is leading the band of          eternal life and,that  they had known and believed that
soldiers and men, armed with swords and staves,                He was t-he Christ, the Son of the living God? Where,
through those same streets, first to the upper room,           then, should they go if they left Him? They belonged
Iwhere  he probabIy  expected to find tie Master, then         to Him. Apart from Him they had no place in `the
to the garden of olives, to lay wicked  hands on the Lord world. His cause was ;tiheir cause. Where He would
of glory. Yes, the hour had begun to strike. . . .             go, they would go. Where He would die, they  ,would
   Yet, it had not fully come.                                 die! . . . .
   The real horror of it had not yet become clear to              Such was their love to Him!
the minds of tihe disciples.                                       And such was also their courage !
   It was still coming. . . .                                     Indeed, they were ready to go with Him into, prison
   And then th& would turn to their own. the discinles         and into death!  SoIemnIy  they' had pledged  ilheir very
that now believed that He came forth from God, all of          lives to Him even that very night. One and all they
them  ; and they would leave Him alone!                        had asseverated that they would rather die with  #Him
   Scattered !                                                 than ever forsake or deny Him. And they were nre-
   Everv man to his own! No, not merelv  would each            pared. Swords  they had secured in order that  thev
flee to his own place for personal safetv in tiat hour.        might fight to the  death,`for  Him they loved. Neither
but they would be soattered  in order that each might did their courage forsake them when the enemy came
seek his own things, nursue  his own interests. which in       and would lay hands on the beloved Master.  Reedy
that hour would scatter them in different directions. they were to put to gooa use the swords they had taken
away from Christ and His "hour"! It was their  re-             with them into the garden. And one of them, always
Iation to Christ that united them. But in that hour            their leader, gave the signal, drew the sword, and


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                             243

would have split the head of one of the Master's                Gladly the disciples fight. But He bids them put
enemies. . . .                                               up their swords and heals the wound struck by Peter.
   Yet, in spite of their love to the Lord, and notwith- The enemy may not `be able to point to scars, proofs
standing the undeniable fact that they were men of of wounds inflicted on them in this  oonflict : the scars
courage and devotion and were quite prepared to lay must all be His.
down their lives for His sake, they were all scattered,         For legions of angels He might pray the Father.
each to his own, and left Him utterly alone ! . . . .        But He refuses. Alone, Ihelpless, defenseless He will
   mY1                                                       stand. For this is not a battle of power against power,
   What was there in this hour of Jesus that was more or might against might;  but of righteousness against
horrible than any human love or courage could endure? the forces of iniquity.
  It was the hour of offense"!                                  And this is the offence  of the "hour"!
   Offended ,they were, one and all! Thus, according            Plainly the Lord had  fortold them, that thus it
to the gospel-narratives by Matthew and Mark, the would be. But they {had never understood. The hour,
Lord had definitefy announced it to His disciples: "All they understood, would surely come.
ye shall be offended in me this night"! Offended they                                                   But in that `hour,
                                                             wlhen the enemies  Iwould rise up against Him, He would
were in Him! There was in this hour an element of consume them by the breath of His mouth, and reveal
offense, which even their love  .and devotion to  the the g!ory of His power. . . .
Master could not overoome. An offense is a stumbling-
block, something that is put in one's way, over which           And they also would fight!
he stumbles and falls and may break his neck. And               With Him they were ready to go into death. . . .
such was Christ to them in this hour of. His sorrow and fighting ?
suffering. . . .                                                But there was no manifestativn of power!
   The hour!                                                    And they were not permitted to fight!
   In that thour, when it f!nally arrived in all its hor-       Then  all the disciples forsook Him and fled !
ror, when it  finally was exposed before  Qhe under-            Scattered they were, each to his own !
standing of the astounded disciples, there .wa.s some-
thing utterly contrary, not only to their darkest appre-        Off ending hour !
hensions  of it, but to all their aspirations and human
experience. There was an element of horror in that
Ihour, that made it inhuman, so that even their  love to
the master could not induce them to stay with Him,
and their courage and devotion proved insufficient. . . .       Alone, yet not alone !
   They were offended in Him!                                   Helpless, yet sustained in battle by the power of
   And that element of offense lay in His absolutely the Almighty!
voluntary surrender and suffering!                              For, thus the Lord declares: yet I am not alone,
It must needs be so!                                         for the Father is with me !
   Willingly He must descend into the lower parts of            It would &appear  different to the eyes of men. In
the earth, into tie darkness of Sheol,  into the depth the darkness of the (hour the Father does not appear
of  ihell. For, our sins ;He must bear and forever blot to be with Him! He does not help Him out, though
out. For the guilt of our iniquity He must atone. Ee cries unto Him with bitter tears. Completely He
And to atone means to satisfy the justice of God with surrenders Him to the fury of the. enemies. They
respect to sin. 4nd to satisfy that justice of God bind Him and lead Him away, ithey falsely accuse Him
He must bring the sacrifice of perfect obedience, of the     and condemn Him to de&h,  they rail on Him, spit in
obedience of love. He must suffer all the agonies of His face and buffet Him. scourge Him and press the
hell, and in the suffering love God ! . . . .                mock-crown of thorns .on His brow, .nail Him to the
   Still more.                                               accursed tree, fill IHim with reproach and mock that
   The judgment of tie worId His death must be. The God will not have Him. . . .  _.  `.                   "        -
mask of  hvpooricy, of self-righteousness and of a form         And He cries out: My God, my God, why hast thou
and semblance of religion must be torn from the faces        forsaken me?
of men that hate God+ and they must be exposed in               Yet; through it  all He is conscious that the Father
all the  ,horror of their oorruption. They must answer is with Him. To Hiin.He  commits His righteous cause !
the question: what will ye do with God, if He comes
to yvu, not in all the majesty and glory of His newer           And through death and the resurrection He gained
and holiness, but without form or comeliness, in .the        the victory !
form of a servant, defenseless and helpless? . . . .            And is justified !                .,
   And thus He stands, in "the hour"!                            Forever !
   Wifihout                                                                                                     H. H.
                power,  either human or divine!


                                       T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                        255
*
terug aaar het paradijs :  I'k zal vijandschap zetten. Nu         You see, the psalmist is speaking of the past and
wordt het vrouwenzaad de verzenen vermorzeld  voor of the present when Ihe exclaims: Thou satest  on the
tHerodus en Pilatus, maar op Golgotha heeft  bet Vrou- throne judging right! And although we also read in
Iwenzaad  de slang den kop vermorzeld, want Hij zeide:         this psalm that God  shall judge the world, so that the
Het is volbracht !                                             poet carries us to the future judgment, yet  this future
                                        D. Terpstra:           view of the Jud,ge does not keep him from beholding
                                                               this same `Judge making "inquisition for blood" even
                                                               ,at the time of this psalm's composition.
                                                                  And {that, my dear reader, affords us wondrous con-
                                                               soIation.  You see, the poet  <tells us that this Judge
                                                               is even known by the kind of judgment He executeth.
              Execution Of Judgment                            Which  furnishes us &with the necessary proof for the
                                                               statement that God is in heaven and all is well. Even
     More and more it seems as though equity, ltruth           though we do not hear His voice with our human ears,
and wisdom Ihave fled from the face of the earth, never stil1 we know Him by the marvellous works He per-
to return.                                                     forms within and around about us.
     The very foundations of human  Irelationship  seems           Even now "the wrath of God is revealed from
to be so shaken that only cruel might, total deception heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of
and ludicrous folly  seer-n to reign supreme.                  man." Rom. 1:18.
     However, nothing is farther from the truth.
     Even now, God lives and all is well.                         Only, you must know God; otih,erwise  you do not see
     Even now, as ever, all things *happen  according to it and you will join the throng of those that wail and
a very  fured plan and for a very determinate purpose.         !ament and have no Helper.
Moreover, that plan and that purpose are strictest jus-           Knowing God  yuu also know virtue. Because God
tice and Divine trutih  and wisdom.                            Ls Ivirtue,  all virtue. And the spiritual .knowledge  of
     At all times God- says: "These things hast thou virtue, transforming you into a saint, affords you fur-
done and I kept silence !" You see, the trouble with us ther knowledge of their very opposite: evil, deceit,
is that we misinterpret the silence of God. We have folly. And you know how to evamate them aright.
our ears open to the raucous cry of the wicked and our             All  .this spiritual knowledge will cause you, as
eyes are upon their vile deeds; whereupon we are in- David, to properly evaluate the  .two kinds of actors  tihat
clined to raise our eyes to tlhe heavens and, complain :       play upon the stage  of the world's history.
"Is there no knowledge with the Most High?'                       First, you will praise God in the midst of the sorry
     That is our mistake.                                      mess the world has made of things. In the midst of
     And this mistake is corrected. in the ninth psalm.        this mess you will find Zion. And ,that is the meeting
     Justice, truth and wisdom always triumph. Elven place between God and His people on earth. That
now and even.                                                  Zion is Jesus Christ the Righteous. He manifests Him-
     You see, God. sits upon His throne and :has ever self upon the earth. Visibly you find Him in the con-
abdicated yet. And that &-one is the throne of judg- fession and walk of God's people together with the
ment.                                                          preaching of the Word. and the administration of
     Oh, yes, we are creatures of time and therefore the sacraments. That is Zion.
there will be a Day of Judgment. But God judges                    And visibly you find Crod in Christ Jesus in the life
every day,. eternally.                                         of a spiritual world of virtue. In faith and hope and
     We may even say that retribution is ever present. love  ; in the hunger and thirst for righteousness  ; in the
We do not have to wait ,until the judgment day to see fight against evil and darkness within and without.
punishment. It is ever before us. And although it                  Dwelling in Zion,  .&at is, in the light, you will
is true  t,hat final retribution is not yet fully revealed,    further also know the righteous. You recognize them
still we  Ihave before us the beginning of the same.           on every side. They are those that with you @raise
     Bu*t in order to see all this we must have spiritual God with the whole heart :' together witlh them you
discernment. The requisite for this perception is the spend your days in the recounting of His marvellous
knowledge of God. Vs. 10.                                      works. These works are so evident in-the sphere of
     If you have that knowledge you see, in the first the natural life as Iwell as of the. spiritual, that you
place, God.                                                    never can get through with that labor. His wondrous
     And because you have true knowledge of God you acts are as numerous as  the hairs of your head.
also see the wicked and the Irighteous.                            When you and they are suppressed, as you usually
     And in the third place you see God's marvellous are,  YOU  put your trust in Him, you cry out of deepest
works toward both the wicked and the righteous. And ~humility to the heavens and He hears your cry., And
you see that  now.                                             you know that He hears you. He is a "hoog vertrek"


256                                      TtHE  S T A N D A R D   BEARtiR

,for you. In Zion you feel your safety in tihe everlast-         a sentenlce  of the judge. To be a,&icked  man is punish-
ing arms of God. Deut. 33 2'7.                                   ment for him w!ho is wicked.
       When you are troubled, *when you are hated, hav-             It  is the child of God, walking in the sphere of the
ing an enemy, when you are plagued as the day is long, evilrtue  of <God who can properly evaluate the wick&d
until you even arrive ,at the very gates of death, He            and their conversation.
hears your cry and lifts you  <up on  thigh, away from              Listen to the singing saint.
these gates of death and you dry your tears again while             The wicked are the enemies of the &ildren  of God.
morning hears your hallelujah%. And all this happens                How horrible !
now, here, on earth!                                                Can you imagine anything more terrible?  Just
       You will have noted that I quote again and again          think, they hate the revelation of goodness and purity
from  the ninth psalm.                                           and love ! For these are the  &ildren  of God!  The
       Of course, you are needy and poor, you are in child of God bears the image of the Son of God and
danger because of tie wicked who dig a pit for you               He in tarn is the express image of His Person. Turn
and try to take your foot in a net which they hid. But           loose these children in the midst of the world and I
you do not fear because God saves you as the day is              assure you that they will be [hated. There never was
long. When the day of your calamity is past, you Iook            a more beautiful manifestation of the Child of God
backward and note with wonder that  ithe wicked have             than when Jesus walked the earth. And wherever He
fallen in that pit and their own foot taken in tihe net          walked He heaped upon Himself the hatred of  t~he
they hid from you.  Marvellous  works of  God! Won- wicked. They reveal their father, their spiritual source.
drous  saIwation.                                                They are of their ,father  &he devil. And his lusts U-K?Y
       Hence, you do not wait for heaven in order to be          would do.
very happy. Oh no, still closer &o His side you press               Hence they'dig a pit for God's own child. And they
 and you know that all is #well! Even here below, you hide a net in order to take his foot unto stumbling.
go to Zion  constan.tly  and you sing of His salvation.             Such revelation is terrible we said.
Time and again I quote from this psalm.                             You see, to be <wicked  and an enemy of goodness,
       This is the knowledge of God. Transforming you trutih and purity is miserable. We are not able to ful?y
 in a saint. And that means  that you are really a citi-         express the misery of a (heart and mind thhat hates God.
 zen of a counbry that is only-partially revealed. You It is death to be apart from  God. And that is suffered
 are a citizen of the new heaven and the new earth that here already in a measure. It is the result of a judging
will be ushered in  wheil the old commonwealth burns             God as a punishment for crimes .committed.
"in fervent heat. You are the firstfruits. of a glorious            Secondly, there is the manifestation of%& wrath of
 harvest. And Christ Jesus, the Son of God, the very             God in this Iife where some crimes are already punish-
 salvation of which you sing in Zion is the First8ruit           ed by an avenging God. Many times the wicked have
 of the harvest. A,nd after :Him  you are the firstfruits.       fallen into the pit which they digged for the righteous.
 You have His Spirit and you understand His Word.                In order not to become too lengthy I would refer to
 And you are blest.                                              Haman.  And such happened often. Moreover, we see
       And all this happens now. And you see and evalu- before our very eyes from age to age that God is pun-
 ate all tihings  aright,. So that in the greatest calamities    ishing the wicked in killing him. His body goes to
you are at rest. Gud lives and all is well. Your humbIe          the grave and that day his name perisheth. And his
 state, poverty, distress, dire need, persecution and soul is gathered in Sheol. He goes to hell. Of course,
-anguish are necessary links in your salvation. They you must have also here spiritual  eye-sigh#t  if you are
 come to You from the Judge who is even now seated on            to see it. But it is so nevertheless. The wicked go to
 His throne. And through Christ Jesus who has the                hell every day. Have you never shuddered when you
 government of all things, it is really God wiho sends           lheard  of the deathbed of the wicked. And why did
YOU among the wolves for a season. And because you "you shudder? Because you  `saw the avenging God
 have spiritual discernment you #k-now  that all things who said : Thou fool! Thou  hast hated Me and My
 that happen to you are very wisdom and truth, bless- qchiIdren, and this night I require thy soul from thee
 ings, even though sometimes they come in disguise,              and where wilt tihou be? And God casts them `down in
 but blessings still. And we say : Hallelujah !                  rrrovisional  suffering in the place that is prepared for
       Yes, all is well.                                         deviIs.  How terrible!  Is this not a reality for you?
       YOU  can say flhat even  now when iit seems as though     I assure you that if heavenly right illumined your eyes
 the'very foundations of the world are shaken. For you .you have seen it. A,nd you harve trembled at the j*ust
 have  Bpiritual  discernment.                                   judgment of God. Even now.
       YOU see God's math  reveaIed.                                And the  fina judgment comes. .Is coming very fast.
       There  is a  threefoId  revelation of that wrath.         The signs of this final coming are about us. And tiat
       First,  YOU  see the wrath of God in the very fact        final judgment shall be terrible. Beyond our compre-
that the wicked are wicked. To be wicked is already hension. No one can describe the horror of it. To be


                                           TJIE  S T A N D A R D   BEARER                                        257

forever apart from God! The destructions of their               The entire life of King James. and of his son,
nand  ,have come to a perpetual end. They certainly fell `Charles I,  yvas taken up with the attempt to: extermin-
mto tne pit which they made for the righteous. And ate Presbyterianism and to maintain  themsaves  as
tied is praised even in His severe judgment. For also head of the church. To that end he imposed upon them
tiis justice and equity are very light.                      his prelacy, responsible to him  omy.  In the second
      tiut the ri,ghteous  are saved.                        place  ,he insisted on uniformity of worship but the
      God has judged from all eternity that they are         worship he would impose upon the church  was thor-
kighteous  in Jesus. The life and death, the work and oughly  RQmis~
labor of the Son of God is imputed unto them. And so            As was said, Bishop Laud, with the support of the
perfect is this work of imputation  that  i.t will seem' as king, enforced uniformity of worship  w&n a heavy
though they had performed this righteousness them- hand. Puritan preaching was. everywhere silenced ;
saves. It is  because they are righteous in Him. He ecclesiastical tyranny was rearing its head everywhere
and they are one body, even legally, before God.             m the land; the spirit of the people was broken by a
      Therefore we conclude  .that God lives and all is well. cruel and shameful punishment; superstitious Romish
All things must serve to bring to manifestation the rites enforced with a heavy hand were deplaaing the
wonderful work of God's covenant. All things are but pure and soriptural forms which the Reformers had
links in the great chain of God salvation.                   introduced.                                  ,.  '  ('
      The darkest page- of history iwill be the, theme of       It was at this moment that an occurance- took place
eternal heavenly glee: and that darkest page is Gol- in Scotland which turned the tide of  atiairs  a.nd
gotha.  But it is also the light of God's unutterable brought deliverance to both Scotland and England.
iove.                                                           We now turn to the nortlhern  kingdom, viz., Scot-
      ,Will you sing of this sakvation?                      land. We recall that the reformer of Scotland was
                                                 G. V.
 1                                                           Knox. What Luther was to Germany, Zwingli to
                                                             Zwitzerland, and Calvin to Geneva, Knox was to Scot-
                                                             land. Knox was an advocate of the Presbyterian sys-
                                                             tem of church government. For the public worship he
                                                             prepared in 1564 a book of common order called Knox's
                                                             Liturgy, which was approved by the General Assembly
              Puritanism In England                          in the same year. It was largely based on that of the
                                                             English `congregation in Geneva which in turn was
      Let us again get before our eye tke two parties to modeled on that of Calvin. Presbyterianism had struck
the great religious struggle raging in England and deep root in Scotland.
in Scotland in the period- under consideration. We saw          The great ambition of King James had been to
how that the yoke of the Pope was thrown off both in stamp out Presbyterianism in Scotland and to set up
England and in Scotland where the Reformation had his prelacy. In 1610  Ihe succeeded. Prelacy `was again
triumphed. We also saw that the Pope's place in the set up in Scotland, dioceses were again assiged to King
church had been taken by the civil magistrate, the king,     James' bishops. Alongside of these bishops, church
who set himself up as the highest authority in the sessions, presbyteries and synods continued to be held.
church. The demand of the king was that the church James could not succeed in imposing his prelates upon
having ,disposed  of the Pope, recognize him as its head Protestant Scotland. The Protestant  Scats were inflex-
,and swear allegiance to him. In England the church did ibly bent upon repudiating a form of church govern-
so, and with its head, the king, is known in history as      ment which tiey believed to be condemned by Scrip-
the State or Anglican Church.                                ture. They also repudiated James' ritualistic worship
      Then began a movement in England known as Pres-        which they held to be idolatry.
byterianism or Puritanism. The Puritans were men                 In all his labors in this direction the king reaped
whose eyes were opened to the truth that the civil nothing but disappointmerit, vexation and trouble  whic!h
magistrate may not be tolerated as the authority in accompanied him to his grave. The Reformation had
the church, that the bead of the church is Christ who        given a clergy independent from the State, and. CT+ in-
rules through his chosen organs, the elders. For this telligent middle class. Against both James was b$terly
form of church government, known as Presbyterianism, opposed. He regarded a free clergy, Presbyterianism, as
the Puritans fought. The struggle in the Church of a menace to his throne. All his life he labored, but
England of this period was a struggle between Angli- unsuccessfully, to destroy it. In doing so he blasted
canism with  i&s Romish system of church government his reputation as a king and laid up a store- of mis
and with the king as its Pope, and Presbyterianism. fortunes  and. sorrows for his son, Charles  I, and alien-
The great ambition of the king  `was to impose his ated from his Ihouse a. nation which had ever borne
authority on the church. An independent clergy was loyalty to his ancestors despite their many and great
deemed a menace to the throne.                               faults.                                      `.


                                         T,HE  STAN;DARD  B E A R E R                                              Q
       Charles I followed in  his father's footsteps. Also introduction of the late innovations ; and that we shall
  his ambition was to set up `prelacy in Scotland. James defend $he same and resist all those contrary errors
  `had. made some great changes, yet he had snot dared and corruptions, according to our vocation, and to the
  to altar the larger features of public worship. This       utmost of that  ,power which God  !has put into, our
   is exactly what Charles undertook to do. In 1637 hands all the days of our life." The Covenant also
  under the instigation of Laud he ordered the imposition pledged its swearers to support the king's majesty. In
  of a liturgy upon. the Scottish church,  which  upon December of the same year a general Presbyterian as-
examination was found to be alarmingly Popish. In sembiy deposed the bishops and repudiated the entire
  several points it even borrowed literally the very ex- ecclesiastical structure  whioh James and Charles had
  pressions of the ,Mass Book.                               erected since 1597. This of course was sheer rebellion,
       The king also ordered the Bishop of Canterbury as the bishops were the arms of the ,king.
  to frame for the clergy canons for its government, the        ln 1640 Charles resolved to punish the Scats.  He
  keynote of which was the unlimited power and suprem- needed however money to carry on t&e contemplated
  acy of the king in the ohurch.    Many of the bishops      war and lwas therefore compelled to call an English
   knowing the spirit of their countrymen informed the parliament. This Parliament, before it would vote to
  king that &here  was a tempest in the ailr and advised     iinance the king's war, again "popped up" with the old
   him to wait  *with the imposition of his  canons and politioal  and religious grievances and demanded re-
   liturgy until the return of calmer times.  The king, dress. The result was that Charles immediately dis-
   however, would not listen; the liturgy must be en-        solved this Parliament. No money' was voted him.
, forced.                                                    tifiarles now  ,called  upon the bishops to furnish the
       T.he day arrived. It was a Sunday morning in funds Parliament had refused him. The clergy raised
   Edinburgh. At' the stated hour  ,. the dean arrived to a large sum in the various dioceses. As a result Charles
   begin the service with the new liturgy. A vast crowd raised an army and marched to the Scottish border.
   had assembled, and the dean began to read. Very soon ,l'he  Ycots were not taken unaware; they knew that
   a frigWfu1 tumult arose, a clamor of voices. A stool the king was preparing to invade their country. The
   was flu~,g at the dean ; the dean shut his book and       Scats  marched to the border; the king was compelled
   fled;                                                     to retreat.    His army had little heart for fighting.
       Then came the bishop,  *ho thought that the greater A treaty of peace was soon concluded which the  Scats
   dignity of his office  iwould be able to inspire more accepted in the excess of their loyalty to the king.
   reverence in the crowd. At his appearance- however The  Scats fought not to rid themselves of the king
   the tempest broke' out anew. He was greeted with but for the peaceful preaching of their religion and
   cries of "Pope", "Antichrist". He too fled from the their civil rights. They would give the king obedience
   pulpit and on his  ,way home had to be defended from but only such obedience as God permitted. When the
   the fury of the mob by the police.                        king would usurp God's place in their lives they re-
       Again the king was informed of the true feeling solves to obey God rather than man and set themselves
   of the nation and advised to show clemency. Instead against the king.
   of taking the advice to heart the king grew more             The following year Charles again denounced the
   bitter and issued a proclamation that the new liturgy     Scats  as rebels and again  ,prepared  to invade their
   had to be enforced and branded with treason all that territory. The  Scats however instead of waiting for
   opposed it.    This thoroughly aroused the spirit of his arrival invaded England and discomfited his forces
  the Scats.  Noblemen, gentlemen and commons came on his own territory, snd levied a tax on the whole
   -from all directions for concerted opposition. Com- of Northumberland to defray ithe expenses of their own
   mittees called Tables were formed, one for the nobles,    military campaign against the king. The king was
   one of the barons, a thir.d  for the commons, a fourth for again compelled to make peace with the Scats.  Thus
   the church. Here again we see that all is not gold        the king had brought the  fire into  Engl,and.  The
  ,&at- glitters. A  ,great deal of the opposition to the church of Scotland now had rest for twenty years, in
   king's liturgy and canons sprang up from purely politi- whioh period Presbyterianism flourished in Scotland.
   cal motives. Any movement curtailing the power of            Let us now return to the controversy between the
   the king was welcomed by the nobles and the barons. king and Parliament. The quarrel between the .king
   These four committees resolved to renew the National and Parliament was nothing but the quarrel of Scot-
   Covenant of  ,&&land. The Covenant read in part as land transferred to England. The issue was whether
  follows : "The underscribed, noblemen, barons, gentle- `the king through hiis arms, viz. the bishops, should con-
   men, commons, ministers promise and swear all the tinue as the authority in the church. There  `were two
   days of our life constantly to adhere unto and to parties in England, the Presbyterians and the Angli-
   defend the true religion and to labor by all means        cans. These parties  ;were  quite well balanced, so that
  lawful to recover the purity and  hberty of the  Gas-      tihe poise of the conflict  was in the hand of the S&s.
   pel as it  *was established and professed before the Whichever side they espoused gained the victory. AS


                                         T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                                  259
E
couid be. expected the Scats joined the ranks of the they combined was civil and religious liberty.  `r`he
L- resbyterians.     The beginning of the struggle was tne bond of alliance aaupted was: `11n.e  Covenant,  (01 :scol;~
meetmg  of Parliamem  ,in 1640, known in history as tne        land), and  The Solemn League (of  tingiaml)  . Some
Long parliament in that it lasted  eight years. It was of the articles of this Joint covenant were: L. `L'he cie-
evident at the very outset that the Presbyterian Yrotes-       fense and the establishment of the Reformed rresby-
tants were in the majority. The grievances ,under which terian religion in the three  kmgciums,  I.e., in tingiami,
the nation groaned were first discussed. The nation's Scotland and Ireland. 2. `I'he promotion or umforrmty
laws were infringed upan, its religion changed, and the among the churches of  tne  tnree  &mgdoms.   a.  `l'he
throne was surrounded by evil counsellors.  The rupture extirpation of popery  .ana prelacy, and all  unsounu
between the king and the people widened  ,daily. `l'wo of forms of religion. 4.  The preservation  01  rarliamenc
the king's favorites were brought to the block by this and of the  hoerties  of the people. 5.  smcere   ana
Parliament.         Despotism was swept away as in a earnest endeavor to set up an example berore  tne  woriu   '
moment. Tlhe king became afrai,d. In a speech held in of public, personal, and domestic  *virtue  aml  goci-
January, 1641, he  said,  "I will willingly and cheerfully l i n e s s .
concur for the reformation of. all abuses both in t%e              Let us now return to ,the Long Parliament. Parlia-
church and commonwealth, for my intention is to re- ment abolished Episcopacy as the State religion in
duce all things to the best and purest times a+ they January, 1643. Now came the question what to put
were in the days' of Queen Elizabeth". He even ad- in its room In 1643 the lords and commons passed
dressed sweet words to the Presbyterians in Scotland, an  ordinance.for  the calling of an assembly of divines
 I can ,do nothing. with more cheerfulness than to give for  tne settling. of. the government and the liturgy of
-Aly people a general satisfaction".  ,He even ratified the Church of England. Notice.that  the state calls this
the.  General  Scottish Covenant and made it law. The assembly. This assembly. is called the Westminster
king who had proven false so many times was almost Assembly because it  ,met  at Westminster. The over-
trusted again.                                                Iwhelming  majority of this assembly  [was Presbyterian-
     At this.time  something terrible happened in Ireland. Puritan.  T.he assembly framed the following docu-
We refer, to the Irish Massacre,  the butchering of the ments : 1. The Westminster Confession. 2.  A form
Protestants by Catholics, as horrible as that of Saint of government or church government. 3. A directory
Bartholomew. The slaughter. lasted for many months. for public worship. 4. A Larger and a Shorter Cate-
Forty thousand as the lowest estimate were murdered; cnism.
some say between two hundred and three hundred thou-               The system of church government the assembly                          .
sand. The northern part of Ireland was nearly  de: framed was thoroughly Presbyterian. The, order of
populated.     The persons concerned in the atrocity worship it `provided was that used in conservative,
pleaded the king's authority and produced Charles' Presbyterian and Congregational churches.
commission with his seal attached to it. It has indeed             The Westminster Confession and the Catechism
been  establisrhed  on good grounds that the king was are among the most noted expositions of Calvinism.
privy to this fearful massacre. The effects of the They are  infralapsarian  as is our Confession. In
massacre were that it shattered the belief in the king's addition to our Confession it emphasized a covenant
sincerity and fanned into a fiercer flame the `passion of works and a covenant of grace.
that seemed to be expiring. The king returned to                   The four documents were presented to Parliament.
England (he had been visiting in Scotland). Rumors The directory for public worship was soon  accepte.d.
were in circulation that  !he contemplated bringing the Parliament looked askance at the establishment of  Pres-
army of the north (the northern kingdom was for the            byterianism as a state religion. Yet it  finally ordered
king) to London to suppress Parliament. The king it in 1646. The same month that witnessed the  aboli-
denounced five of the leading members of Parliament .tion of the old prayer book saw the execution of Laud.
as traitors and went in person to the House wit.h the                                                               G .   NT.  0 .
police to apprehend them. The five members left just
before the  king.arrived  and thus escaped arrest. The
House voted that a breach of privilege had been com-                                      In Memoriam
mitted. London bristled with mobs crying for justice.              Zoo de  Heere  wil en zij  leven   hopen   onze  geliefde  uud,qs,
Confidence was now at an end between Charles and                                     MARTIN DE JAGER
Parliament.                                                                                    en
     The king soon left London for Nottingham in the                      GERTRUDE DE JAGER,  Geb., Siebesaa
northern kingdom. Here he summoned the .populace               den lsten  Maart, 1940,  bun   35-jarige   e&t-vereeniging  te  ge-
of the north to rally about him at York for war. They denken. Dat de Heere die hen en deze jaren goed en nabij .is
did so-it meant the  beginni,ng  vf Civil War in Eng- geweest hun verder moge zegemn  e.n  sparen   VOOP elkander en
land. Scotland united with England against the king, voor  ons, 3s de wensch  en bede van hunne dankbare
aiding England with an army. The basis on which                                                 Kinderen   e n  I$leinkinder+


260                                                 T H E   S T A N D A R D .   B.EARER

                                                                            declare they revile ; for. He. whom they mock is the
An@ They That Passed By  Reded Him truth. `~`hink this. not strange. Consider that the
                                                                            truth in Christ #had taken on a voice and Chad cried out
                       And they that p~ssml  by reviied  him, wagging       against their  hypocricy, denounced- their sham piety,
                   their head's,  and saymg, `~`nou  that destroyest the    snattered their  talse hopes, condemned their  worldli-
                   temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself.     mindedness, ordered them, the shadow, to disappear
                   if thou be the  Son of God, come  dolirll  from  thhe    now that IH~ who is the way, the truth and the life
                   lxuss.                                                   had come, counseled them to hide themselves in Him
                       Likewise also the chief  priests mocking him,        and to seek His heavenly kingdom, lwould  they live.
                   with  <the  scribes  and   elders said,                  ror this they hated Him and thus sho,wed themselves
                       Se saved  &hers; himself he  cannot.  save. If       up as having- no alnnity with the truth  lwhich  they
                   he be the * of Israel, let him now come down             proclaimed through the service they performed. Being
                   from the` cross,  and we will believe  in him.
              :                                                             carnal, they understood not the meaning of this.  ser-
                       lie trusted in God; let him deliver  him how;        pvicej  of the type,. the shadows d which  He 
                   if he will have  him: for he said, 1  am the Son                                                           W= the
                                                                            body. The construction they placed upon it was of
                   of God.                                                  their own devising. The kingdvm they proclaimed was
                                                   iaatt.      27:39-48.    of this earth. The Gvd they preached was a. being with
       And. they reviled Him, they that passed by. The                      whom there is respect of persons and they were the
motley crowd, blind followers of the leaders in all  hke- persons respected. They had no, knowledge of their
lihvod  Iwho< repeat what they tive heard when they misery, and thus no. need of the blood that cleanses
say, Thvu that destrvyest the temple.. What He had said from  sin. They judged not themselves but others and
is, Uestroy  this tempLe, and in three days 1 will raise                    refused to realize that in judging another they cvn-
it up. Thus. He  smke at the beginning of His public demned themselves. in that they did the same things.
ministry in the temple ,that He had cleansed. And the But He who is the truth came. And He  j.ndged them.
Jews, thvse whose ire *He had aroused by His amazing He- spared them not. He 4Ied them blind guides who
courage, the leaders. of the people,. the scribes and the strained at a gnat, and, swallvwed  a camel;. hypocrites,
el,ders, the priests and. the I'harisees,  had picked up who cleaned the outside of the  cup, and of the platter
this saying and distorted* it and:. as distorted, repeated but within were full of extortions and excesses..  This
it, so that He svon had become known as one  w~he                           was more, than they could hear..  Fvr they were men
boasted of a power capable of destroying the temple in destitute of grace.  So they plotted against His life.
three days. And they had all: along held this state- Finally they have Him in their power and afYix Him,
ment, as. distorted, against Him as: indicative of some the Lord of glory, to. the cross. And all because He
sinister ambition. Now  they have Him affixed to the had fearlessly and undauntedly spoken to them the
cross. And the rabble, passing by, revile  EIim. It is truth.
of little concern to them whether what they say to                             But do- they not realize that of their slaughter of
Him,  is true. Hating Him they are. bent on piercing their victim the sacrifice they daily bring in the court
Him through .with their wurds. So they catch. hold of of the temple is. the depiction; that. the-very  prophets
any damaging saying  of Him in circulation and. fling by whvse word they sware  and whose grases.  they build
it in His teeth, now that He hangs, apparently helpless, called for the very scene they here enact on the  brow
to,the  cursed tree.                                                        of this hill? Isaiah had spoken plainly enough  : "Sure-
       IHQW they, the ones. passing by, despise Him ! About ly he hath borne our griefs. . . . But he was. wounded
midway in His career, the day follawing  His feeding for our transgressions, he was bruised for  vur iniqui-
the five thousand with a few loaves, He had blasted ties : the chasetisement  of our peace was upon him ;
their false Messianic hones. Having witnessed the and with his stripes we are healed.. . . ." The Psalm-
miracle He had performed, they began seeking Him ist even suhlied the details: "F&r  dogs have encvm-
for the bread that perisheth. Facing them, He said to passed me ; the assembly of the wicked have enclosed
them, Labor not for the meat that perisheth, but for me : they pierce my hands and my feet . . . . They part
the meat which en,dureth unto everlasting life, which my garments among them,  and. cast lots upon my
"the Son of Man shall give unto you.                                        vesture."    T*he Holy Ghost  had even penned down the
       The chief priests, the scribes and rulers are also very wvrds that the  cricifiers  were to take upon their
&here to  mock Him. The chief priests! Horrible in- lips : "They shake their head, saying, He trusted! in the
consistency ! These priests by the senvice  they per- Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him,
formed proclaimed the very Christ they now turn away seeing he delighteth in him."  l?s. 22. Are these scribes,
from as from one accursed: And the scribes are the who know the Scriptures,  withvut  understanding? Does
teachers of a law and a prophecy that turn solely on it not occur to them that they fulfill the counsel of God
Him., Thus under the impulse of a fierce spite they                         and thus function as His agents? They are blind with
crucify the  very one they- preach. The very truth they a blindness that springs frvm a fierce malice. So'they


                                     TtHE  S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                         261

open their mouth against him, as a ravening and a the Lord  upholdeth  him with His hand. They con-
roaring lion.                                                fess that the saints are not forsaken by ,IIim, but are
   Thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in preserved forever; that the seed of the wicked is cut
three days. . . . thou on the cross? A man of such off. Upon this conception as upon a floor they now
power, a crucified one, incapable of saving himself? take their stand and again begin stabbing at His
Preposterous! Thy present plight is the uncontrovert-        heart.
able proof that the power thou ascribed to thyself is           He trusted in God ! How well they know it.
not thine, that thou art a pretender with a mind that,       Trust He had imparted to all His discourses. His per-
as  iwarped  by a colossal egoism, imagined vain things son and very being animated  .perfect confidence in God.
about, thyself. If not, thou would&  certainly save thy- Therefore they hated IIim all the more. Well .did ,they
self. Is it because thy plight is a pleasant one that understand that His .implicit .and unshaken confidence
thou refuse& to leave thy cross?                             sprang from His fast and abiding conviction that He
   Then, too, thou saith that  tho.u  art the Son of God.    worked th[e works of God always, that thus God took
If so come down from the cross. God's Son on the a delight in Him and in all X43e had ,done and spoken.
cross? So did those that passed by revile  Slim. So To this conviction He had often given  .expression:
unutterably foolish, so unspeakably absurd do His say- "Verily, verily, I say unto yau, The Son can do nothing
ings about Himself appear to them, now that He hangs,        -of himself, but what he seeth the Father do-: far what
apparently helpless from a cross, that words fail them things soever  He ,doeth, ~these.also  doeth .the Son like-
and they pass on wagging their Iheads.                       wise. . . . My Father worketh  hit&e&o.  and I work.
   The priests, the scribes and the elders mock, too. I can of myself do .nothing.: ;as I hear I judge: ,and my
They say, He saved others. This they could not very judgment is just because I seek  not  ,mine  ownwill,  but
well deny. The evidences of His wonder-working .power the will of the Father which hath .sent me.`)- If these
were too plentiful. Re had made the blind to see, the His convictions  .are  ,tru.e,, they are doomed. .For He has
deaf to hear. He  had cured the lame and the halt; judged them: ",Woe  unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
cast out devils, raised the dead.. What manner of dis- hypocrites ! because ye build the tombs of the prophets
ease was there, that :He had not cured? Verily He had and garnish .the sepulchres  of the righteous, and say,
saved others. Himself He cannot save. His power If we had been in the days .of our fathers, *we -would
was Satan's And Satan now leaves. Him in the .lurch, not have  b.een  partakers with them in  .the blood of the
or is either powerless to help. no-w that the  Ihour of prophets. Fill ye up then the measure  .of your fathers.
divine vengeance has struck. So they must have rea- Ye serpents, ye generations of  tisers, how  can ye
soned among themselves,                                      escape the damnation ,of hell? " So IIe had spoken.
   They have still other. <words wherewith to pierce Was this reproof .of ,God? There was not a shadow of
Him. It occurred to them also that &Ie has said that He -I doubt  in His mind that it .was. He,belieszd  that all
was Israel's king. They did not deny that Israel was to along He had. warred .the warfare. of Jehovah.
have a king. They knew the  ,pr.omise. Unto them a              Is His conviction genu,ine? Is .God for Him? `If so,
child *would be born and a son given. Upon his shoul- :He must now come to H,is aid, for Be hangs helpless
ders the government was to be. And his name was to from a cross.               Would God foneake  the righteous..?
be called, Wonderful, Counsellor, the Mighty God,  t*he Would He deny  Flis own Son? It  .cannot  be. How
Everlasting Father, the prince of peace. Of His govern- apparent now, such is their reasoning, that they had
ment and peace there would be no end. He, hanging not misjudged Him and that their  a.ppraisal of IIim
from the cross, Israel's king? If so, now hath He op- was true and that His. .appraisal of them was wrong.
portunity to make good His claim. Let Him come Thus do they justify themselves and condemn I3i.m.
down from the cross, and we will believe Him.                   Apparently Ris present plight fully justifies their
   One more shaft they thave. He trusted in God ; let judgment. For greater paradox then the cross there
Him deliver Him now, if He will have Him. They do is pot.
not say that it is vain to trust in God. T&y are called          Tthe Son of God  .on the. cross. He, by whom  .al.l
Jews and rest in the law and make their boast in God,        things were created, the omnipresent God, who meas-
know His will. They mean not to say, `the fool trusted ured the waters in the hollow -of His. hand, meted out
in God thinking that He would stand by him in the heaven with a span, comprehended the dust of  the
crisis and thus knew not that he who puts his con- earth in measure, weighed. the mountains .in scales
fidence in God is invariably but to shame'. Such isnot and the hills in .a balance, he before. whom the nations
the insinuation of  sthese mockers. To the contrary, are nothing, He, the incomparable God, who  bringeth
one of the articles of their faith is, I believe in God the the princes to nothi.ng-hanging  apparently helpless
Father, who without respect of persons judgeth ac- from a cross? ~How can this be?
cording to every man's work. They  *how  that the                He, who saved  oth,ers,  now seemingly unable to
steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, that            save self.
though he fail, he shall not be utterly cast down as             Israel's king, of whom it has been. predicted by. the


262                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R
m
prophet  that He :will break the heathen with a rod of would call for weeping. For then it merely served  as
iron, and dash them in pieces" like a ,potter's  vessel,         the instrument for drawing out of fallen man all the
apparently the victim of mob force?                              corruption lurking in his bosom, as the means for
". He that  tru&ed in God, forsaken by God ! How showing him up as a creature capable of slaying holi-
`strange, how perplexing, how awful! If ever a man ness itself.
trusted in God, it was Him. Never hed He taken                      But we #know that He wlho died upon the cross was
thought for His life, what He should eat, or w,hat He the Son of God in truth, one capable of building the
should drink. For He trusted that His heavemy  Father temple in three days, One who saved others, One who
*would care for Him. Fearlessly, He had ,declared  the trusted in God.
name of His Father unto men ; for He believed that                  Son is He, in the flesh, who in His flesh  `was
not a hair could fall from His head without the will wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our
of His heavenly  Eather.   i When He was reviled, He iniquities. Thus did He make His soul an offering for
reviled not again ; when He suffered, He threatened sin and ww :His seed, Who could the Lord bruise for
not ; but committed  His" case to Him  bwho judgeth our sin  <but Him? Not a mere righteous man. For
,rigMeously.                                                     the soul that sinneth shall die. An angel, not being of
 .       His trust in God rooted in the confidence that God our race, could not have atoned for sin. So God gave
was for Him. And this confidence in turn was His b.e-            His Son, Son of God as God. Say therefore that God
cause He walked as a child of the light, fought the'good Himself, in the human nature He assumed, redeemed
 fight, confessed the name of His Father before men,             us from all our transgressions. This was the work
 made the `doing of the wiI1 of His Father His meat and th,at the Father had given Him to do. Therefore He
 drink. And the Father loved Him ; for His hands were remained upon the cross until He could declare that it
 clean and His heart pure. Thus His confidence that was finished.
 He was the beloved, of the Father was not a vain  imagi-           Because He is the Son, He has power to build in
:nation. He was righteous. He thought God's thoughts, three days the temple that they as the agents of God
 willed God's will. :His delight was in the law of. the destroyed. And that temple is His body.
 Lord. His mouth was full of .praise..  When He spake,              Being the Son, He during His sojourn among us
`words of life flowed from His blessed lips.. His feet had saved others indeed. Thus when all was finished,
*were  always swift to do the bidding of the Father.             He also saved Himself, swallowed up death unto vic-
 And He was conscious of His integrity. With the tory. And He shall divide the spoil with the strong.
 crreatest  confidence, He invited His  .enemies  to convict For trusting in God, He was delivered.
 Him of sin. They could not. He was sentenced to die                What love ! It was of this love and its fruits that
 because  ,He spake the truth about Himself.       If ever -a the apostle was thinking when he wrote: "Eye bath,
 man  wtilked with God, it was He. Surely He had. not  seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
 reason to believe that God would help Him.                      heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for
       ' And yet, He hangs, seemingly  *helpless.  from a them that  Iove Him."
 cross, forsaken by the Father, encompassed by dogs.                                                         G. M. 0:
 enclosed ,by the wicked. Upon Hiss head, thev emntv
 they vials of their bitter scorn. They deny His Son-
 ship, mock with His Kingship, deny His power, insist
 that He is one accursed. What have they not alreadv
 done to Him? Thev  smote Him. They pounded Him
' with their fists,. spitted in His face. pressed a crown of                   The Levitical Priesthood
 thorns upon His, brow so  that the blood trickled down
 this face. Thev ploughed  upon His back with a scourge                  Holiness was the property of God's priests, of
      qnd finally laid a cross upon His back to which thev Aaron and his sons. We learn this from Moses' reply
 !now have Him affixed. And still they cannot refrain to Korah, "Tomorrow the Lord will shew who is His,
 from reviling Him.                                              and wlho is holy ; and whom He makes to draw near to
       Let God deliver Him now, if He will have  Hiti.           him ; and whom  He chooses will He make to draw near
 But God does not cume to deliver. !Ha ! th.e Most Hi&. to Himself" (Num. 16  5). Now whereas the whole
 ,wilI not have Him. He dies on the cross. The leaders congregation was holy, what was meant is that Aaron
 of Israel return to their altars. Hell  seeminglv  tri- and his sons (the priesthood) possessed this property
 umphs.                                                          in a peculiar sense. Tlh$s raises the question, What was
         Do the forces of darkness here gain a  victorv7         the symbolical holiness of the -priesthood? And the
 Nav. the cross spells the triumph of God. The hm-lfnl           answer  i It  `was the holiness that resulted from the per-
 ,naradox  at bottom is beautiful harmony. For He hang- formance upon them of the rites of oonsecration  ; it
      ing from that cross is .a righteous man to be  sure.       was the holiness further that consisted in the beauty
      But if this is all that could be said of Him, the cross    of their official dress and in the anointing oil that was
                                                                    c


                                      T H E   S T A N D A R D   B E A R E R                                      263
 -,  ~.
 applied  tv their person. Let us now shed the necessary 5 5). And in another section of this same epistle
 light  on these statements.                                 wives are told that they are not to let their adorning
     The first rite tv be performed upon Aaron (and his be "that outward adorning  of plaiting of hair, and
 sons)  `was that of the washing. (Lev. 8). Moses, in of wearing of gold, vr of putting on of apparel ; but
 obedience to the Lord's command went to the taber-          let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is
 inacle,  taking with him Aaron and his sons, and the not corruptible, even the ornament  of a meek and quiet
 garments and the anointing oil, and a bullock fvr a spirit, which is in the sight of  God of great price.
 sin-offering, and two rams and a basket of unleavened Finally, in his vision John saw those  yvho came out of
 bread for the offerings. He gathers "the whole congre- the great tribulation arrayed in white robes-robes
 gation"-that is, the nation in the  persvn of their which they (had Iwashed and made white in the blood of
 elders-there  also.  Bringing Aaron and his sons Moses the Lamb. (Rev. 7  :14) . The `propriety of likening
 *washed them with water. This was not done merely righteousness, praise, salvation and meekness to a gar-
 `for the purpose of freeing their bodies  from  filth., The ment, the fitness  of calling the Christian virtues true
 activn  formed a religious rite. It denoted the washing adorning, springs  from the circumstance that the
 sway of sin by the blovd of Christ. It was performed earthy is a symbol  of the heavenly. If this is true of
 upon Aaron for the purpose vf supplying him with a the earthy  i.n general, it was especially true of the
 synodical-typical  purity  or holiness. Having washed official garments of the  Levitical  priesthood. These
 Aarvn, Moses clothed him in the dress, especially de- garments in their beauty formed the earthy replica
 signed and `made for the highpriest. iHaving dressed of Christ's spiritual adorning. He, *therefore, was
 him, Moses  ,poured the anointing oil upon  ,his head. He God's true priest. And He is this as He is holy, harm-
 thereupan sacrificed fvur offerings-a sin-, burnt-, less, undefiled, and separate from sinners. (Heb. `7 :25).
 peace-, and meat-offering-to the Lord in the behalf The thought conveyed is nut merely that He was free
 of Aaron and his sons. Of the blood of the peace-offer- frvm sin, but that He knew no sin in the sense that
 ing Moses took and put it upon the tip of the right ear     His moral purity was native by virtue of His being
 of Aaron and, his sons, and upon the thumb of their conceived and born in holiness. Therefore He needed
 right hand, and upon the toe of their right foot. Of not as Aaron to offer up sacrifice first for His own sin.
 this blood and of the anointing oil he also sprinMed        and then for the ,people's:  for this He did once, when
  upvn  Aaron and his sons and upon their garments. rHe offered up Himself. And the  "odvur  of sweet'?
  (Lev.  81..                                                smell in His sacrifice was His perfect obedience, his
     This then was Aaron's holiness,, name!y,  the bodily hearing the voice of God only, His doing the will of
 cleanliness that resulted from his being washed Iwith       the Father. and His running the way of His commands.
 water, the beauty of the dress in which he, as priest,      And the figure of this His devotion  was the tip of
 was clad, the sweet fragrance of his anointed head, the Aaron's right ear and the thumb of his right hand
 anointing oil and the blood of the sacrifice as sprinkled and the  .great  toe of his right  foot as stained with
 upon his garments, the blood of the sacrifice as put        the blood of the ram of consecration. This rite has
 upon his ear and hand and foot. ` Through his being occasioned questions. Why were  only the Tight ear
 supphed  with this (symbolical) holiness,, he was con- and the right thumb and toe sprinkled with blood?
 secrated to the office of high:priest and; as so conse- Why were not both ears and both hands and both feet
 crated, possessed the right to perform the work of a sprinkled ? The one corresponding member was in-
 sacrificer, the right to atone the sins of this people in cluded in the other  ; since both' the ears and both the
 the holiest place. But Aaron's holiness was shadow, @hands and feet have the same object. and their offices
 symbol.   Tthe cleanliness that resulted from his body are' so connected,, that what is said of  ~the one applies
 being washed with the water of consecration. signified fr, the `other. Another question is. whv the ear. an?
 fhe  perfect  moral purity of Christ, and  the splendor of the foot. and hand. were smeared *rather than the breast
 his dress was the emblem  ,vf Christ's spiritual beauty, and the tongue. And the answer: Bv,the ear obedie~~c
 of the righteousness and salvation with which the was designated, and by the hands and  feet  a.11  thn
  Fat,her  clothed Him, when He raised Him UT) and set activns   .a.nd the whole  cvurse of life. the  inteeritv  of
Ilim together with His people in heavenly  maces,  and the whole life. and the <walk  for the dire&m of living.
 khis in fulfillment of the promise. "I will, clothe her     And. ina.smuch as the foundation of welldoinv is obedi-
  (Zion's)  Driest+   with salvation" (Ps.  132:16).  Not    ence, which is preferred to all sacrifices, Moses was
 the splendor of Aaron's material robes, but holiness is commanded to begin with the'ear. Ant-l  in  the three
 the true adorning, garment of Cod's priests. Such is members snrinkled was embraced whatever related to
 the teaching of this scripture.  It is a teaching that the atonement.
  one encounters  vver and vver in Holy Writ. Unto them         There  is scarecely  anything more cornmnn in Scrin-
 fibat mourn in Zion will He give garments of praise for ture than these figures, by which the cleanness of t,he
 flw &Grit of heaviness (Isa. 61:3). The anostle Peter hands is taken for the integrity of the whole life. and
 CI&OI%  God's people  to be clothed in humility (I Pet.     the sanctified foot for the right way of life and the


264                                   T.HE  S T A N D A R D   BEAB%R
-
sanctified ear for obedience. The wicked one walks in .eye as clasped to~the heart of Ghrist in whom He chose
his own counsel, which is the counsel of -the ungodly ; and saved it unto His glory and who is thus ever-
he  .doeth  evil. His feet are swift to shed blood. De- lastingly the sanctification, the righteousness, the wis-
struction and misery is in his "way  ; and the way of dom and redemption of this people.
peace he knows not. Rut the feet of Christ, God's                As has been pointed out, the clothing of Aaron
true priest, were set upon a rock, and they were not          (and his sons) was followed by the anointing, which
suffered to be moved. He turned in perfect obedience was performed first upon the tabernacle and its furni-
His feet to God's testimonies. He ,refrained His feet ture ; then upon the altar of burnt-offering' with its
from every evil  cway.  The lamp for rHis feet was the        utensils and upon the laver and its foot; and after
word of His God, .and this word only. Thus His feet this upon Aaron by the pouring of the holy oil upon
stood within God's gates. And his hands were pure. his head.             Tlhat Aaron (and his sons) as well as all
His right hand was  ,a hand of truth, it was full of the vessels, should be consecrated with oil was because
righteousness. Therefore did God also uphold Him without the influence of the Spirit all the sacrifices
with His hand, save Him with His -hand, deliver Him w&d be unsavory. And it is by the operation of this
out of the *hand of the unrighte-ous, and say So Him,         same Spirit that Christ was made the peace-maker
Sit thou at my right hand, suntil I make thy enemies between God and man ; because this .dignity  would not
thy. footstool. As to the ear of Christ, it was an ear otherwise  ,belong to Christ's human nature.  .Aaron
of perfect hearing, inclined  ,solely to the wisdom of was therefore anointed together `with .his sons.
God and unto His sayings. Therefore  ,did God also                                                         G .   M .   0 .
incline His ear unto Christ's prayer, bow down to Him
His ear and deliver Him.
       What is said of the consecration of Aaron does not
apply to Christ's very own  .person, but refers to the                   WAT HIJ AANGENAAM IS
profit of His people ; for neither was .Ghrist anointed
for His own sake, nor had He need to be endowed w:ith                  Heere God, Gij Heer der heeren
grace from  His own blood. It was for the sake of His                  Die in AANGENAAMHEID ,woont,
people that  .He  sanctifed  Himself, for the sake of this             Die `t  heelal  eenmaal zal eeren
people whose thead He was and is, and whom in His                      Als de Schepper, God, gekroond.
fathomless love He carried upon His .heart and bore,                   Gij, 0 HEERE, Opperwezen
so &o say, upon His shou.lder,-His people, whom He                     Ziet op Uwe hemel-troon
possessed  everIastingly,  thus even before the -founda-               d'opstand,  up de aard gerezen
tion ,of the worM  in the counsel ofthe Father,-possess-              Tegen U en Uwen Zoon.
ed as a people, chosen in Him unto life everlasting
and thus, by virtue of that election,  ,confurmed to `His              En nu  zoudt  Gij U gaan  schikken,`
image, called and justified and glorified with that same               AANGENAAM zijn met Uw oog
glory  .that He in His office of- Mediator, had with the               Aan de MENSGH  die U pril plukken,
Father in His counsel before the world `was.                           U  wil  storten van  omhoog?
       Let us consider once more in this connection that               Zulks,  0 God,  .O  Hemel-Heere;
portion of Aaron's dress, called the breastplate, that                 Die. voor-Zion- `t leven gaf-,
woven fabric of the same material and of the same                      b  khans,  +heden,  taal en leere
kind of work as the ephod, and in which were set the                   Van-uw-Zion- dicht bij `t graf.
four rows of precious stones. The  totallity  of these
stones signified, in their glistening beauty, the  peonle              Neen. Gij Heer, voor Goddeloozen
of God not in the ugliness of its sin and pollution, but               Zijt Gij nimmer ,AANGENAAM,
in the -glory of its salvation,  whioh is the glory of                 Voor geen wereId in ,den booze
                                                                       Is Uw Liefde, is. Uw NAAM.
Christ. It was this people in its heavenly perfection
that the Father has everlastingly engraved in the palms                Neen, Maar de gebroken zielen,
of His hands, and that Christ everlastingly cIasped  and               De versIagene  van hart;
was. clasping to His ,&art when He offered Himself.                    Die voor U in  ootmoed   knielen
4nd unto. the  justif-lcation  of this people, He was                  Zijt GIJ AANGTNAAM  in hun smart.
raised. With this people, He was set in heavenly                                             J. H. HOEKSTRA.
places.     And He went in into the holy place and
stands everlastingly in the presence of God, .bearing
upon His heart this people, for a memorial before God                            N O T I C E
continually. Such  i,s God's will ; for He Ioveth this           Het Bock, geschreven door Ds. H. ,Hoeksema  tegen
neople in their glory, which is the glory of Christ, and Ds. Zwier is verkrijgbaar bij Ralph Schaafsma, 524
therefore  ,wilIs  to have it everlastingly before His cHenry Ave., S. I$, Grand -Rapids, Mich.  Prijs 75 cents.
 c


